Lot 121: ANTHONY HILL B. 1930

signed in full and with monogram, inscribed RELIEF/ CONSTRUCTION/ H2 and dated 69 and 1969 on the reverse

laminated plastic with 24 aluminium strips, unframed

octagonal, 91.5 by 91.5cm., 36 by 36in.

London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Anthony Hill, 1983, no.78.

Knoedler Gallery, London, by 1983
Kasmin Ltd., London

Executed in 1976.

A committed constructivist for much of his career, Hill was one of the youngest members of the circle around Victor Pasmore and Robert Adams from 1949 onwards, but soon became important as both contributor to and organiser of significant exhibitions of new abstract art. His contact with significant continental figures, such as Kupka and Vantongerloo, was also influential in the movement.

By 1956, his work began to move away from painting and collage towards the making of relief constructions in industrial materials, particularly sheet metals, plastics and aluminium. In 1960 he wrote in the journal Structure:
'A constructed relief neither stands like a sculpture nor is it suspended like mobiles and other kinds of constructions, it is not a window or a carpet like a painting and neither is it part of the wall. The relief is the real plastic object par excellence, it has the dimensions of everyday objects and yet it is not to be confused with them.' (London, Hayward Gallery, Anthony Hill: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1983, p.26)