Roger Hilton (1911-1975)

Figure 1961

Roger Hilton was a late-comer to St Ives, he had rented a studio there in 1956 but did not settle in Cornwall until 1965. After the war he exhibited in Paris and London. His career began to take off in the 1950s, a period dominated by abstract works, but in 1961 he declared 'Abstraction in itself is nothing. It is only a step towards a new figuration'.

Figure 1961 is one of a series of female nudes made in the early 1960s. Drawing was very important to Hilton and here a few charcoal lines suggest the figure. These nudes have an energy, sometimes joyous and sensual but sometimes threatening. In Figure 1961 the subject seems hemmed in by the canvas, the limbs awkward and distorted. Hilton was a volatile character whose struggles with his art and with alcohol coloured his personal relationships.

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