Joe Tilson (British b.1928)

'Taste' from 'Five Senses Series', screenprint; signed, dated 1999 and numbered 29 of the edition of 50 (framed in white box frame)

Joe Tilson attended St.Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art. His career spans over 40 years during which he has been making and exhibiting paintings, constructions, reliefs, prints and multiples. He was elected to membership of the Royal Academy in 1985.Joe Tilson was originally associated with the British Pop Art movement in the early 1960s, but went in a different direction due to his dissatisfaction with the technology and industrial 'progress' of the consumer society. He has written that art is a tool of understanding, an instrument of transformation to put your self in harmony with the world and with life. The themes Joe Tilson chooses for his work aspire to transcend time and cut across cultures to communicate the sacred in nature.

Each of the Five Senses Series shows a close-up of part of the human body, Taste looks at a woman's mouth, the realistic image of the mouth has lips slightly parted to reveal a starry mystical sky beyond. Joe Tilson's 'Transparency, the Five Senses: Taste 1969' was exhibited in the 'Art & The 60s: This was Tomorrow' exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 2004.