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.
