Painter, printmaker, writer and scientist, born in Vacoas, Mauritius. He gained his master’s degree in biology at Cambridge University, studying art in France and Norway. In 1956 Wilson helped form the New Vision Centre Gallery, a showplace for abstract and other modern art. Wilson produced some of the most dynamic abstracts of the postwar period in Britain. His work ranged over spiky linear compositions, through others more spare and geometric towards a mature style which comprised images disciplined but energetic. Wilson sought “to create a synthetic vitality, more living than life, the means of supplying our anti-vital, anti-human society with intense symbols”. His scientific background was of key importance in understanding his approach to painting, as were his books, which included Art into Life, 1958; Art as Understanding, 1963; Nature Regained, 1977; and Art as Revelation, 1981.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)


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