Artist Tom Wilson feted in new book

Friends and patrons of late local artist Tom Wilson filled the rooms at the Back Porch Café in Rehoboth Beach Sept. 7, to celebrate the launch of a new book cataloging his work.

The large turnout confirmed no one has forgotten about Wilson or his art, said former Back Porch Café co-owner Keith Fitzgerald.

“I’m so glad the Biggs Museum decided to do an exhibit and a book for such a deserving artist and good human,” he said.

Fitzgerald brought Wilson on as the restaurant’s art director in the 1980s, when Wilson returned to Lewes after a successful international modeling career. Wilson organized four to five art shows at the restaurant each summer, including one of his own every year. 

The Back Porch was a most fitting location for the launch because it was also where Wilson met chef and co-owner Leo Medisch, with whom he enjoyed a 13-year relationship until his death in 1995 of complications from AIDS. Medisch died of lung cancer in August 2013.

“Tom Wilson: Super-realist/Surrealist,” was co-authored by Biggs Museum curator Laura Fravel and former curator Ryan Grover, both in attendance at the launch to sign copies and read excerpts from the book.

When he began to track down Wilson’s artwork and collectors, Grover said, he found that most pieces were purchased directly from the artist at the Back Porch and remained with original buyers. Wilson’s work truly began when he returned to Sussex County, Grover said.

“This book was as much about Tom Wilson as it was about the community that supported him,” Grover said. “With New York and Paris calling, Wilson chose instead Sussex County’s then-sleepy beach town to fuel his true passion with painting.”

Fravel said Wilson’s community of family and friends made the project a joy to work on. Wilson radically changed his style through the years, she said, and viewing American painter Edward Hopper’s work at a New York exhibition became a turning point in his own career. 

The Delmarva Peninsula offered ample subjects, Fravel said, and Wilson combed the area looking for interesting places to paint images that felt at the same time familiar and dreamlike.

“He described the results as super-realism, which is beginning to border on the surreal,” Fravel said.

Biggs Museum Director Michael Dudich said the event was a long time coming.

“This book is kind of why the Biggs Museum exists, for artists like Tom Wilson,” Dudich said. “To preserve their work, to present their work, and to be able to produce such a beautiful book like this.” 

Biggs was set to launch the book in conjunction with the museum exhibition when a treasure trove of information about Wilson’s life and artistic process was discovered in a storage unit maintained by Fitzgerald on Route 1 in Rehoboth, Dudich said.

“We decided to delay the book, and so a book that was originally going to be a 30-page catalog is now an 80-page tribute to the life and work of Tom Wilson,” Dudich said.

Dudich then read an excerpt from the book, using Wilson’s own words when he applied for a grant.

“While I am still able, I want to work on projects without having to worry about whether or not they will sell,” Dudich read. “I know, too, that someday I may be unable to work at all, an added fear which makes me determined to paint only what I feel like painting now. Facing AIDS has made me want to get my affairs in order.” 

“And this is the most important sentence,” Dudich interjected as he continued reading Wilson’s words, “I would like to organize and have published a book or catalog.” 

As he concluded, the audience applauded.

The Biggs Museum exhibit, also titled Tom Wilson: Super-Realist/Surrealist, features 50 works on loan from 22 private lenders throughout Delaware and is on display through Sunday, Oct. 16.

A documentary, “The Luminous Life of Tom Wilson,” also aired at the Biggs Museum in the summer of 2022.

The Biggs Museum is located at 406 Federal St., Dover. For more information or to order the book, go to biggsmuseum.org.