William Tillyer (British, b.1938) studied art in his home town of Middlesbrough, England, from 1956–1959, before moving south to London in the 1960s to study at the Slade School of Art. It was there that he encountered William Coldstream (British, 1908–1987) and Anthony Gross (British, 1905–1984), among others. Following his time at the Slade, Tillyer took up a French Government Scholarship to study gravure under Stanley William Hayter (British, 1901–1988), at Atelier 17 in Paris.

Upon returning to London, Tillyer began to make radically experimental work that raised questions about the relationship of art to the world—man to nature. Hovering between the conceptual intrigue of works like Eight Clouds and the Minimalist assertions of works like Red Interior, Tillyer developed a range of means by which to deepen the external references of his work.

Constantly searching for new means by which to explore his art, the 1970s saw Tillyer return to printmaking with renewed vigor. He won international acclaim at the Second International Print Biennial in Krakow, Poland, and found the support of Bernard Jacobson of Bernard Jacobson Gallery, who has been a dealer of his work ever since. With these prints, Tillyer used a variety of techniques, from etching and five-tone screen printing, to creating lattices.

His work has been shown frequently in the United Kingdom and internationally since 1970. In 2013 MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) in Middlesbrough gave Tillyer his first major retrospective exhibition since 1996.