This hardback book brings together the contents of three sketchbooks that Alfred Wallis filled with drawings. With an introduction by curator Andrew Wilson, it offers a remarkable insight into Wallis’s art of memory made tangible.

'No, I don’t think a good Wallis is representational, it is simply REAL.’ - Ben Nicholson.

These sketchbooks have an extraordinary story behind them. They were created in 1942, Alfred Wallis’s final year, when he lived in the Penzance poorhouse. They shine new light on his contribution to the development of modern art in Britain.

Please note that as this book is a faithful reproduction of the artist's sketchbook contents, the artworks are displayed in the orientations that Wallis originally drew them in. This means that some artworks appear to be 'upside down', this is deliberate and not a printing error.

A Cornish mariner and scrap metal dealer, Alfred Wallis was self-taught, having started to paint around 1925, following the death of his wife three years earlier. A potent influence in the late 1920s for artists Winifred and Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood, his simple and direct style communicated a truth of experience that also came to personify the overriding character of St Ives as an art community that valued his authenticity of expression. The legacy of his art continues to inspire artists today.

Dr. Andrew Wilson is a critic, historian and curator. He was previously senior curator of Modern and Contemporary British art, and Archives at Tate Britain (2006-21) and before that deputy editor at Art Monthly (1998-2006).