Imants Tillers: One World Many Visions is a landmark publication on a
major Australian artist. Tillers's art received considerable
international recognition in the 1980s. In 1986 he was slected as the
artist to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. Since then
significant survey shows of his work have been held at the Institute of
Contemporary Art, London, in 1988, and at the Museo Contemporaneo
Monterrey in Mexico in 2000. Considering the extent of his artistic
contribution, it is fitting that the National Gallery of Australia
should recognize Tillers's accomplishments in a major publication that
documents his work from the 1970s to the new millennium.
Imants Tillers: One World Many Visions is a scholarly and lively
account of Tillers's art and includes numerous works that are documented
for the first time. Included in the publication is an introduction to
the background of his work in the 1970s and to his remarkable
Canvasboard System, in which he works on all canvasboard panels numbered
from 1 to around 80,000 at the present time. In-depth discussions
consider Tillers's artistic development over more than twenty years, the
relationship of his work with indigenous art, a biographical account of
his art and life, and a poetic interpretation of his recent work
relating to place and the environment.
Across the spectrum of works Tillers makes pertinent local and
international connections, raising questions about origins and
originality, place and displacement, multicultural concerns and
serendipitous connecitons, and environmental issues. This richly
illustrated, up-to-date publication is an engaging account of one of
Australia's most significant and thought-provoking artists.
