William Tillyer

Book excerpt: The extraordinary paintings and watercolors of this contemporary British abstract artist, deeply influenced by the romantic English landscape tradition of Constable and Turner. This is the first major look at the work of the renowned yet intensely private and reclusive artist William Tillyer (b. 1938), best known for his abstract oil paintings, watercolors, and prints. Tillyer’s skill and hugely varied body of work make him one of Britain’s most respected artists, in the same generation as Lucian Freud and David Hockney. Tillyer is finally getting the recognition he deserves. While Tillyer’s paintings are largely abstract, they are based on the landscape of North Yorkshire, where he has lived and worked for most of his life. The book covers Tillyer’s experiments with nontraditional materials and techniques—his 3D panels, cut canvases, constructed works with found objects, printmaking with a wide range of processes, and paintings on wire mesh.