Roger Hilton

September 1961

1961

© The estate of Roger Hilton

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In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: St Ives Circa 1959

Free entry

Artist: Roger Hilton 1911–1975
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 889 × 1067 mm
frame: 912 × 1090 × 44 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1962
Reference: T00503

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Hilton titled many of his paintings simply by the date of their completion so as to emphasise his desire that the work be seen for itself, and not in any representational way. However, by the 1960s he had developed a new kind of figurative language. In his compositions of these years abstract shapes and looping lines often suggest the presence of a figure or landscape, or both. These bold forms are obsessional, recurring constantly in his paintings. Works of this period, such as 'September 1961', are also less densely painted and more atmospheric than earlier works. This could well be the result of his growing sensitivity to his light-filled, airy surroundings.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

T00503 SEPTEMBER 1961 1961

Inscr. on back of canvas, 'Hilton 35×42 Sept. ‘61’.
Canvas, 35×42 (89×106·5).
Purchased from the Waddington Galleries (Grant-in-Aid) 1962.
Exh: Waddington Galleries, April 1962 (12, repr.).
Repr: Cimaise, No.63, January–February 1963, p.86.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I