Joe Tilson:The Clones of Venice.

Far be it from me to knock a nonagenarian but the Venetian paintings that were on show at the Marlborough Gallery in London's Joe Tilson:New Paintings exhibition were all a bit samey. It's not that they were unpleasant or anything. It was just hard to get particularly excited about this collection of harlequin designs and sandboxes for computer games.

Lots of nice colours and no doubt Tilson had a lovely time in Venice looking at, and painting, old churches - but there's not really a great deal to be gathered for the casual viewer. It's like looking at a stranger's holiday snaps or a very dry exercise in academia. Which would seem about right with the titles being inspired by musty old John Ruskin's 1850s treatise on Venetian art and architecture, The Stones of Venice. Ruskin was born two hundred years ago this year so presumably it's to tie in with that.

The Stones of Venice Ca' Contarini Fasan (2017)

The Stones of Venice Ca' Mastelli (2018)

Tilson was born in London in 1928, joined the RAF, became a carpenter, and eventually studied at St. Martin's School of Art in the fifties alongside the more famous likes of David Hockney, Peter Blake, and Patrick Caulfield and he's developed something of a reputation of the forgotten man of pop art. 

Forgotten for a reason perhaps. Or maybe I just can't see it. Waldemar Januszczak knows his stuff and he's written an essay to accompany the catalogue for the show. Perhaps it would work better if I was to travel to Venice to see these old buildings (anyone up for financing that trip?) and, indeed, the two 'exciting' public installations made for the city by Tilson.

The Stones of Venice Ca' Foscari 2 (2017)

The Stones of Venice Ca' Foscari 4 (2018)

Clearly, Tilson loves Venice and, sadly, my sole visit to the city involved an hour wait in a bus station back in 2014 before getting a cheap flight back from Treviso. I can't blame him for loving Italy. It's a beautiful country with much to see and do but are these paintings (wth their dull repetitive names) really the best way to do such majesty justice?

I like the deep, almost nocturnal, blue of The Stones of Venice Ca' Foscari 4 and I had fun picking things out from the grid pictures (I can see a shell, a hand, a heart, an anchor, a bell, and is that a centaur?) but surely there must be artists more worthy of an exhibition in a fairly prestigious Mayfair gallery?

The Stones of Venice Ca' Doro (2018)

The Stones of Venice San Marco 36/1 (2018)

The Stones of Venice San Marco 36/11 (2018)

The Stones of Venice Ca' Foscari 3 (2018)

It doesn't sound like Tilson needs the money. According to the brochure you pick up on the way in to the show, "he and his wife have spent months of each year in their small house in the sestiere of Dorsoduro" and he's been "commissioned by the Grand Hotel Hungaria on the Lido to produce glass panels to adorn the facade of the hotel".

Alright for some. I like bold colours, I like geometric patterns, and I like Italy (as we've established). I'm sure I'd like Venice but I have to say I couldn't get particularly excited about Joe Tilson's new paintings of old buildings. Happy 90th, you lucky git, nonetheless. By that age I suppose you should be able to do whatever you fucking want.

The Stones of Venice Ca' Foscari 4 (2018)

The Stones of Venice San Cristofor (2017)