Roger Hilton

Rose Hilton

Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London, where acquired by Bill Cocker

Osborne Samuel, London, where acquired by the present owner

Roger Hilton one of the most original and exciting British painters of the Post-War era. A year before he died, the Serpentine Gallery in London held a major retrospective of his work, Roger Hilton. Paintings and Drawings 1931-1973 (1-31 March 1974). To promote the exhibition, the Serpentine produced a large colour poster of one of Hilton’s most celebrated paintings Oi yoi yoi (1963), now in the Tate Collection. Oi yoi yoi was an integral part of his prizewinning exhibition at the British Pavilion at the 1964 Venice Biennale.   

In the last years of his career Hilton was too weak to paint on canvas, so instead produced a remarkable number of works on paper. On seeing the printed poster the Serpentine Gallery had produced to promote his retrospective, Hilton decided the colours were too dull and painted over it with brighter, primary colours in gouache producing the unique present work Untitled, (Dancing Woman). By re-working the poster with gouache Hilton challenges traditional conventions of art by reclaiming his work from mechanical/commercial reproduction. The primary reds, blues, whites and yellow refresh the palette of his abstract paintings from the 1950s. These divided primary colours show that Hilton never lost his fascination with the possibilities of their contrasts and vibrancy.