"Although it is certainly not my customary habit to write so-called fan letters to my colleagues, in this singular instance I feel moved to do so. I made a point of stopping over in Toronto with the express purpose of seeing your imperial oil Murals. I am happily convinced that this break in my journey was completely justified and rewarded, for the murals proved to be beyond my furthest expectations. You have succeeded in a gigantic undertaking, the very thought of which would undoubtedly terrify the great majority of your contemporaries in your own profession..."

(Lawren Harris to York Wilson, 1959)

York Wilson was born in Toronto in 1907. He studied art at Central Technical School, Toronto with Fred Challener, Peter Haworth and Alfred Howell. At the age of 17, York Wilson found his first position as a commercial artist with Brigdens, working with Charles Comfort, Andre Lapine, Will Ogilvie and Fred Finlay. He moved on to a career with Sampson-Mathews, and found himself working with Frank Carmichael, A.J. Casson and Jos. Gauthier. On weekends he sketched with Jack Bush. Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller counted themselves his friends.

As a muralist, York Wilson became the greatest in Canada. Roy Thomson, later Lord Thomson of Fleet, commissioned one of the first for his newspaper office in Timmins (1940). Others followed, at McGill University, Montreal (1954), the Salvation Army Headquarters, Toronto (1955), the Imperial Oil Building, Toronto (1957), the O’Keefe Centre, Toronto (1959), General Hospital, Thunder Bay (1965), Dow Corning Ltd., Toronto (1965), Bell Canada, Toronto (1965), Ontario Government Complex (1968), Carleton University, Ottawa (1970), Central Hospital, Toronto (1970) and Simpson-Sears Tapestry, Toronto (1973).

York Wilson was given the signal honour of being invited to submit his self-portrait for the historic Uffizzi Gallery in Florence, where it hangs along with those of Michaelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci. Wilson was the first Canadian to be invited by the government of France to mount a one-man show in a Paris Gallery of his own choosing.

A true world citizen, he painted in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Spain, France, Morocco, Turkey, North Africa, Italy, Greece, the Middle East, and Asia.

Never applying for or receiving assistance grants, York Wilson had over 60 major solo shows including the World’s Fair, New York (1939), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1947), Excelsior, Mexico (1949), Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (1952), Museo Municipal de Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Spain (1952), Canadian Biennials National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1957, 1961, 1963), Geneva, Switzerland (1957), Rome, Italy (1958), L’Art au Canada Bordeaux, France (1962), Bienal do Museo de Arte Moderna Sao Paolo (1963), London, England (1963), Main Gallery Musee Galliera, Paris (1963), Confrontation Salon International Dijon, France (1964), Rose Fried Gallery, New York (1968), Palacio Bellas Artes, Mexico (1969), Birla Museum, India (1970), Musee Beaux Arts, Le Havre (1970), Centre George Pompidou, Paris (1978), Traveling Retrospective - 9 Museums, Canada (1970’s), Moore Gallery Memorial, College Park Gallery, Toronto (1984) and over 500 group exhibitions.

His works can be found in major museums and galleries in Canada and abroad, as well as many private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris, France, Museo del Arte Moderno, Mexico, Museo Eduardo Westerdahl, Spain, Birla Museum, India, Tanaka Museum, Japan, Uffizi Gallery, Italy, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Art Gallery of Algoma, Art Gallery of Windsor, Calgary Art Gallery, Edmonton Art Gallery, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Hamilton Art Gallery, Hart House, Toronto, Isabel McLaughlin Collection, London Regional Museum and Art Gallery, Lord Beaverbrook Art Gallery, New Brunswick, McMichael Collection, Kleinburg, Musee d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Sam & Ayala Zacks Collection, Sarnia Art Gallery, The Gallery, Stratford, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery, York Wilson Room, Guild Inn, Scarborough, MacDonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, University of Alberta, Laurentian University, Montreal, Laval University, Quebec, Western University, London, St. Mary’s University, Halifax, Lethbridge University, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto Dominion Bank, Citicorp Bank, Bank of Canada, Ottawa, Canadian Industries Ltd., Toronto Stock Exchange, The Arts & Letters Club, The National Club, The Ontario Club, The York Club, Rosedale Country Club, Yorkdowns Country Club, The Granite Club, Imperial Oil Co., Gulf Oil of Canada, Shell Oil Company, Canadian Oil Company, Ontario Hydro, City of North Bay, The Honourable William G. Davis, The Honourable Pauline McGibbon, Department of External Affairs, Government of Canada.

York Wilson passed away in 1984 at the age of 76.