Anthony Hill British, b. 1930

Overview

Anthony Hill (b. 1930 London, UK) studied at St Martin's School of Art, 1947–9, and at the Central School of Art and Design, 1949–51 and was part of the British postwar Constructivist group, which included Kenneth and Mary Martin, Victor Pasmore, Adrian Heath, Gillian Wise and Stephen Gilbert. In early 1950 in Paris he met Sonia Delaunay, Georges Vantongerloo and Francis Picabia and was heavily influenced by Mondrian’s doctrine of neoplasticism. In 1956 Hill pushed beyond the narrow limits of painting into relief and construction using industrial materials such as stainless steel, plastic and rubber to compose precise, geometric reliefs created using mathematical formulas. Hill’s fascination with Mathematics continued throughout his career and Hill became a member of the London Mathematical Society and a visiting research associate in the Department of Mathematics at University College, London.

 

Hill was a part of the Structurists, a group formed in response to the Joost Baljeu’s journal STRUCTURE (1958- 1964), along with Charles Biederman, Carlos Cairoli, Ad Dekkers, Jean Gorin, Carel Visser and Gillian Wise, who all found common ground in the theories and principles of their De Stijl predecessors a few decades earlier.

 

His first solo show of reliefs was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1958. He has participated in exhibitions of abstract and constructivist art including in the travelling exhibition Experiment in Constructie at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam,1962. In 1978 he exhibited in the Arts Council's exhibition, Constructive Context. In 1983 the Hayward Gallery held a major retrospective. His work can be found in many major museums and collections, including Tate Gallery, the Arts Council and the Gulbenkian Foundation.

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