Roger Hilton

Roger Hilton (British, 1911-1975) Untitled dated 'DEC/55' (verso) oil on canvas 25 x 20 cm. (9 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.) PROVENANCE: Rose Hilton Private Collection, U.K. LITERATURE: Adrian Lewis, Roger Hilton , Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Aldershot, 2003, cat.no.37, p.65 (ill.b&w) By the autumn of 1955 Hilton wrote in a letter to the artist Terry Frost, describing his new artistic outlook: "I am tired of non-figuration. Though they may not be overtly figurative, I am going in future to introduce if possible a more markedly human element in my pictures ... I'm not going to [be] 'afraid' of figuration any more." (Adrian Lewis, Roger Hilton , Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Aldershot, 2003, p.63) The artist went on to write that whilst not wanting to discard everything that he had aimed for before, he was eager to introduce a new sense of human physicality in an expressionistic sense, that is clearly visible in the torso and head structure of the present work. Appearing for the first time at auction, Lewis suggests this may be one of only a few surviving records of the artist's experimental output of this period. We are grateful to Rose Hilton for her assistance in cataloguing this work.

Roger Hilton (1911-1975) July 61 signed and dated 'HILTON/JULY 61' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 16 x 22 in. (40.5 x 55.9 cm.) with New Art Centre, London, where purchased by the present owner. 'Painting is feeling. Just as much as a sentence describes, so a sequence of colours describes. 'When I paint it is an affair of instinct and intuition. I feel shape and colours inside myself. I have the feel of the work rather than the vision of it. The picture is completed when the plastic form of this feel has made its appearance'. (R. Hilton quoted, A. Lewis, Roger Hilton, Aldershot, 2003, p. 81.)

Roger Hilton (1911-1975) Untitled 1974 signed with initials and dated 'R.H. 74' (lower right) charcoal and gouache 18½ x 14 in. (47 x 35.6 cm.) with Waddington Galleries, London. with Adam Gallery, Bath, where purchased by the present owner. London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Serpentine Gallery, Alive to it All, Janurary - February 1983, no 78; this exibition travelled to Hull, Jully 1983.

Description: Roger Hilton (British, 1911-1975) "Untitled," 1973, mixed media on paper, 7.5" x 10.25", signed and dated upper right, framed Estimated Value: $800 - $1,200 Absentee Bid Telephone Bid Condition Report: not examined out of frame; appears to be in good condition

Lot Description Roger Hilton (1911-1975) Cat signed, inscribed and dated 'CAT/ROGER HILTON 1966' (on thereverse) oil and chalk on a floorboard 14 x 51½ in. (35.5 x 130.8 cm.) Saleroom Notice Please note the additional cataloguing for this lot: Exhibited: Manchester, Peterloo Gallery, Inaugural Exhibition, November1967. Literature: M.G. McNay, 'Opening Exhibition at the Peterloo Gallery,Manchester', The Guardian, 4 November 1967. Reviewing the 1967 exhibition in The Guardian, M.G. McNay wroteabout the present work, 'Hilton, in short, displays a nice contemptfor orthodoxy. The central image of a well-ordered abstractpainting in a rough plank of wood is a schematic caricatured blackcat: unquestionably kin to Eliot's railway cat ("You can play nopranks with Skimbleshanks, He's a cat that cannot be ignored"). Butthe buffoonery masks an acute mastery of the medium, a lyricalexactness of great poignancy in paintings ...' (loc.cit.). Exhibited London, Messum's Fine Art, Modern Painters of West Cornwall,2008, no. 9. London, Messum's Fine Art, Twentieth Century British Art, 2009, no.36. View Lot Notes › Cat was painted on one of the removable short floorboards whichcomprised a traditional 'coffin drop' in Cornish cottages, andwhich Roger and Rose Hilton discovered in their cottage atBotallack when they moved there in 1965. (Because staircases wereso narrow, there was usually a section of the bedroom floor whichwould be removed to lower a coffin through.) In order to improvethe insulation and sound-proofing of their new home, the Hiltonsdecided to fill in the coffin drop and Roger used some of thesurplus planks as panels to paint on. Here he can be seen adaptinghis imagery to suit the size and shape of the support: making awitty design which explores the spirit and essence of a cat,combined with a dynamic arrangement of colour and form. We are very grateful to Andrew Lambirth for preparing thiscatalogue entry.