Space

One of the most important British painters of the later twentieth century, Hilton spent much of the 1930s studying in Paris, before settling in St Ives, Cornwall, after the war. Here he joined a number of other avant-garde artists, among them Patrick Heron, Terry Frost and Peter Lanyon, as well as the elder statesman of modernism, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, who were exploring new ways of depicting form, light and colour in their work.

Hilton was committed to abstraction, although, like Ben Nicholson, he was not afraid to incorporate representational forms in his work - humans, animals and even landscape elements all found their way into his paintings, although always at the service of the composition. He wrote that:

“The greatest artist will be the one who most completely lets the medium shoulder the idea.”

In Space, Hilton uses simple, expressive strokes and a minimal range of colours to create an off-centre composition that excites the eye yet still retains its own harmonious balance.