Roger Hilton

March 1960

1960

© The estate of Roger Hilton

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In Tate St Ives

Modern Conversations: Modern Bodies: Barbara Hepworth

Artist: Roger Hilton 1911–1975
Medium: Oil paint and charcoal on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1016 × 1524 mm
frame: 1096 × 1605 × 65 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1965
Reference: T00764

Display caption

Hilton’s work oscillated between complete non-representation and degrees of figuration. In the end he came to believe that was ‘only a step towards a new sort of figuration

, that is, one which is more true’. Often apparently abstract shapes suggest parts of the body – usually female. But, as well as his forms, Hilton used the material of the work of art itself to evoke ideas of the body and its functions. He reversed the conventions of picture making by drawing into and over paint while the paint itself looks as if it has been smeared or laid on in blocks.

Gallery label, February 2010

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Catalogue entry

Roger Hilton 1911-1975

T00764 March 1960 (grey and white with ochre) 1960

Inscr. on back, ‘Hilton 40 x 60 Mar. ‘60’.
Oil and charcoal on canvas, 40 x 60 (101·5 x 152·5).
Purchased from the artist through the Waddington Galleries (Knapping Fund and Grant-in-Aid) 1965.
Exh: Mainichi Newspapers VIth International Art Exhibition, Metropolitan Art Gallery, Tokio, May 1961 and tour (unnumbered): Kompas 2: Contemporary Paintings in London, Stedelijk van Abbe-Museum, Eindhoven, October–December 1962 (26, repr.); C. A. S., British Painting in the Sixties, Tate Gallery, June 1963 (49); Venice Biennale, 1964 (British Pavilion, 16, repr.) and tour to Zagreb. Berlin, Recklinghausen, Brunswick and Amsterdam.

Painted in London. It was awarded the UNESCO Reproduction Prize at the 1964 Venice Biennale.

Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1965–1966, London 1967.