Jenna Burlingham Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Artists
  • Artworks
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • About
  • How to Buy
  • Contact
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu

MODERN BRITISH

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Roger Hilton, Oct '64, 1964
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Roger Hilton, Oct '64, 1964

Roger Hilton 1911-1975

Oct '64, 1964
oil on canvas
76.2 x 91.4 cm
30 x 36 in
signed, dated, titled and inscribed verso

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Thumbnail of additional image
‘Oct ‘64’ was painted at the height of Hilton’s career and at a time when Hilton was being fully recognised as one of the most radical and inventive leading exponents...
Read more
‘Oct ‘64’ was painted at the height of Hilton’s career and at a time when Hilton was being fully recognised as one of the most radical and inventive leading exponents of abstract art in Britain. Having been taken on by Leslie Waddington in 1959, he then went on to win first prize at the John Moore’s exhibition in 1963 and in the same year that this work was painted he won the UNESCO prize at the Venice Biennale.

Hilton is often considered a Cornish Artist, but he was arguably one of the most European artists of his generation. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he had engaged with, but was not consumed by, the dialogue with American abstraction. Having lived and studied in France before the outbreak of war, he continued to visit regularly and was immersed in the abstract-figurative dialogue of the Ecole de Paris. By 1960 he had arrived at a language of organic abstraction which showed a continued negotiation between abstraction and figuration but also the importance of drawing through his varied mark making and use of the charcoal line.

His paintings from this time are not about the narrative but rather the paint itself. In this work the simple compositional arrangements belie the consideration that has gone into the juxtaposition, layering and exposed traces of underpainting. The painting gives the impression of spontaneity and although Hilton painted in quick short bursts, there was much contemplation and deliberation about his next move – every gesture in a Hilton painting is deliberate, considered and made to count. Andrew Lambirth has written of how ‘Hilton’s mature style intentionally brought the notion of the sketch to the finished picture, thus generating a new immediacy in the work’ (Lambirth 2017). It was this unique style of blending apparent control with uninhibited spontaneity that projected Hilton onto the international stage, leaving him with a reputation as one of the most innovative and exciting artists of Post-War Britain.


Close full details

Provenance

Estate of the Artist
Private Collection, London
Enquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3ERoger%20Hilton%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3EOct%20%2764%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3E1964%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3Eoil%20on%20canvas%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E76.2%20x%2091.4%20cm%3Cbr/%3E%0A30%20x%2036%20in%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22signed_and_dated%22%3Esigned%2C%20dated%2C%20titled%20and%20inscribed%20verso%3C/div%3E
Previous
|
Next
165 
of  473

Copyright © 2025 Jenna Burlingham Gallery

Delivery and Returns      Privacy Policy

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
Send an email
View on Google Maps
Privacy Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Jenna Burlingham Gallery
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join Our Mailing List

We won't spam you. We will send a monthly email highlighting new artworks and events, with very occasional other mailings.

Interests *

Sign Up

* denotes required fields

In order to respond to your enquiry, we will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in any emails.