Youth and Happiness

He held his first exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in London in 1962, securing a reputation as an ultra-modern. The BBC filmed Tilson wearing Michael Caine-style glasses and speaking in an Estuary accent — out-cooling his contemporaries with the boldness of his style and the rawness of his approach. His paintings were tough, loud and alive to what soon-to-be prime minister Harold Wilson famously termed the ‘white heat’ of technology — graphic and dazzling, like an after-image flare on the retina. He held his first exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in London in 1962, securing a reputation as an ultra-modern. The BBC filmed Tilson wearing Michael Caine-style glasses and speaking in an Estuary accent — out-cooling his contemporaries with the boldness of his style and the rawness of his approach. His paintings were tough, loud and alive to what soon-to-be prime minister Harold Wilson famously termed the ‘white heat’ of technology — graphic and dazzling, like an after-image flare on the retina.