Roger Hilton (1911-1975)

Oils of this period are often characterised by abstract presences rising from the picture's edges towards the centre of the composition (see A. Lewis, Roger Hilton, Aldershot, 2003, p. 112). In this work, a spikey heavily painted black shape appears to rise upward from the bottom edge of the canvas, piercing a delicately out-lined arc, but stopping short of the bold red band which crosses the canvas. Hilton is demonstrating in this work his preoccupation with the placing of irregular shapes and contours and their relationship to each other in the spatial organisation of the composition. Hilton was just as interested in the role played by the spaces between the forms as the shapes themselves.
Patrick Heron praised Hilton, calling him 'a natural painter ... that is to say, he cannot put brush to canvas without creating a splotch, smear, streak, strain or smudge that is charged with expressive quality' (P. Heron, The Changing Forms of Art, London, 1955, p. 200).