Tony Wilson: Turn Turn Turn: Floor 2

It’s actually hard to categorise Wilsons expansive output: he is a painter, maker and writer, but more truthfully a sociologist with interests in philosophy and the plastic arts - in short an old school creative intellectual and economist who, at ninety, has written his second book ‘’The Wheels of Society,” a readable melting pot of informative and erudite musings on why societies fail and Wilson’s thoughts on how to reframe our thinking ...

”we are drifting towards a frightening vision of runaway global warming. We are fouling our own nest. We need urgently to understand how society works."

CIRCLE are very pleased to have the opportunity of showing  examples of Tony Wilsons beautiful visual diaries, watercolour sketches and paintings which chronicle his daily life. Tony is a revelatory visual diarist in the mould of artists like William Blake, Frida Kahlo, Charlotte Solomon and singer songwriter Joni Mitchell to name but a few. As well as conventional landscape paintings and roundels depicting pastoral village life. Wilson, in Hockney vein, paints 360 degree panoramas - huge spherical acrylic bands like lampshades hang lopsidedly from the ceiling: this eccentric format illustrates scenes of tony’s home and garden. They are exuberant paeans to ordinary life. We are reminded of Chinese scroll painting but instead of unrolling the parchment to reveal the panoramic narrative we walk around the picture. 

All work on show are part of Tony Wilson’s personal collection. A selection of limited edition art prints of Tony’s diary illustrations will be on sale alongside signed copies of The Wheels of society.