Roger Hilton

Waddington Galleries, London, where acquired by Dr. Charles Damiano
Waddington Galleries, London, where acquired by Ken Powell Esq.
Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London, where acquired by the present owner in March 2004

Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, European Art Today: 35 Painters and Sculptors, cat. no.159.506, 1959, with British Council tour to Los Angeles, San Francisco, North Carolina, Ottawa, New York and Baltimore, catalogue untraced;
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Contemporary British Paintings (Middle East), 1965, with British Council tour to Cairo, Alexandria and Gibraltar, catalogue untraced;
London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Roger Hilton, 1974, cat. no.25;
London, Serpentine Gallery, Roger Hilton: Paintings and Drawings 1931-1973, 1st - 31st March 1974, cat. no.25;
London, Hayward Gallery, The South Bank Centre, Roger Hilton, 4th November - 6th February 1994, cat. no.21, with tour to Birmingham, Ikon Gallery and the University of Manchester, The Whitworth Art Gallery.

 

Andrew Lambirth, Roger Hilton: The Figured Language of Thought, Thames and Hudson, London, 2007, illustrated p.97.

Original canvas. There are areas of paint separation and craquelure in the upper left, lower right and upper right quadrants, visible in the catalogue illustration. There are further areas of craquelure to the grey pigment in the upper centre and a small area of lifting paint along the bottom edge. There is a small area of paint loss in the middle of the canvas near the right edge. The canvas undulates slightly in the lower left quadrant which corresponds to the areas of craquelure and paint separation previously mentioned. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held in a slip frame within a simple box wood frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Schooled in the formal abstraction of post-war Paris, Hilton's work employs a level of bravura which, when at its best, is truly stunning. In his abstract works, simplified forms which carry with them no implicit figurative references dive back and forth across the canvas, using only a gift for placement and paint manipulation to achieve their effect. Often incorporating a free charcoal over-drawing into the finished images and using the simplest of palettes, his paintings become images representative primarily of an emotional expression.

Whilst at first glance, this can appear to engender a relatively limited repertoire, one only need look at the failure of so many of his peers to achieve in their own abstract work the level of release seen in Hilton's paintings to understand why for many he is considered one of the most consistently adventurous and talented artists of his generation.