Page 50 - Studio International - October 1966

Anthony HIll

interviewed by Kenneth Frampton

Born London 1930; studied Kenneth Frampton. You once stated in an article' that two main K.F. The introduction of vertical angle elements set on the
at St. Martin's School of Art trends were discernible in abstract art: the architectonic and the diagonal in plan, is surely the most notable aspect of your work
and Central School of Arts
and Crafts, London; 1950-54 mathematical. How do you feel about this in the light of your since 1962 where in your large relief for the I. U.A. building
Abstract painting. With recent work? this was used for the first time. In that work only two elements
Victor Pasmore, Kenneth Anthony Hill. I still believe that a distinction of this were tilted in an otherwise exclusively orthogonal relief. Subse-
Martin and Adrian Heath
active in promoting English kind can be made, but with reference to my own work I quently, however, you have developed the use of this form in a
abstract art; subsequently feel it would be more appropriate to use the terms series of works.
participated in didactic and `physical' and `thematic'; architectonic and mathe- A.H. Prior to this departure I had only used the diagonal
group exhibitions—including
Artists v Machine, Building matical can be too easily misinterpreted.2 The physical in a two-dimensional form, intermittently up to 1956. In
Centre, 1954, This is Tomorrow has to do with context: light, space, dimensions, materials, fact I restricted myself to an exclusively orthogonal for-
Whitechapel, 1956; organized movement, etc.; whereas the architectonic, which can mat for a period of only four years (1956-60). Then I
Construction-England:
1950-60 (Drian Gallery 1961) imply these things, is equally applicable to purely became interested in new physical/optical possibilities
which was followed by structural themes as well as some kind of philosophical largely to do with symmetry, and the adoption of certain
'British Constructivist Art' approach. In the same way the mathematical can be thematic ideas best resolved by using angles other than
which toured the U.S.A. in
1962 and 'Construction- seen as 'inner architecture', and/or systems of thought. the right angle.
England', Arts Council 1963 At that time I was identifying architectonic with Neo-
participated in Painting and Plastic and mathematic with a basically 'open syntax'. K.F. It seems to me that a three-dimensional relief as opposed to a
Sculpture of a Decade Tate,
1964, and British Sculpture in The two can of course co-exist. It is interesting to com- two-dimensional work affords the possibility of ordered lateral
the 60's 1965; one-man shows pare two orthogonalists, Diller and Lohse, the former views, and this suggests to me that your introduction of elements
at I.C.A., 1958, Kasmin quite intuitive with no explicit thematics, the latter set at an angle was a conscious attempt to control these views in
Gallery, October 1966;
lectures at Chelsea entirely programmatic. The thematic I see as ideas order to achieve at least two other precise readings of the work
School of Art. material that can be derived from diverse sources; order- besides the frontal one.
ing principles irrespective of the physical attributes of the A.H. Yes, this is so, but the degree to which the lateral
work, and which can be mathematical in structure. views predominate depends upon the element. This con-
Relief Construction 1955
Low Relief 1955
Theme: a 'cut in a continuum'. An This was based on a number of studies on
the theme of a progression and was started
early relief developed from a series
as a painting in the previous year. It was
of studies originally based on the
net of a cuboctahedron.
Hill's first exhibited relief.

Three paintings 1955-6
In 1954 Anthony Hill made a series of orthogonal/diagonal paintings
(black lines on a white ground) that were tentative explorations with
cinetique effects. Subsequent paintings (above) were his last before
moving exclusively into reliefs.
200