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Hill (Clinton) papers
M2534
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Clinton Hill papers
Creator:
Hill, Clinton, 1922-2003
source:
Clinton Hill/Allen Tran Foundation
Identifier/Call Number: M2534
Physical Description:
30 Linear Feet
(56 containers)
Date (inclusive): circa 1930s-2000s
Abstract: The papers of visual artist Clinton Hill (1922–2003) contains both his artwork and his archive, including correspondence,
photographs, exhibit publicity, personal ephemera and other material.
[identification of item], Clinton Hill papers (M2534). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanfordy Libraries,
Stanford, California.
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift, 2019. Accessions 2019-390 and 2019-475.
The papers of visual artist Clinton Hill (1922–2003) contains both his artwork and his archive, including correspondence,
photographs, exhibit publicity, personal ephemera and other material. Hill, whose formative years as an artist took place
largely in New York in the 1950s and 1960s during the heyday of abstract expressionism, created an extensive and varied body
of work. His paintings, mixed-media works on paper, assemblages, sculptures, and prints embodied a variety of styles making
his work somewhat difficult to categorize. What is evident, however, are indelible links to abstraction, minimalism, and
constructivism. His strength as a colorist, the lyricism of his geometric lines, and his boundless appetite for experimentation
with materials and process are some of the defining elements of his oeuvre.
Hill was raised on a ranch in Payette, Idaho. His training as an artist began in Oregon in the 1940s, continued in Italy
and France in the 1950s, and ended at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York (1949–1951). In New York, his teachers included
German expressionist painter Max Beckmann and John Ferren, a founding member of The Club, a group formed by Abstract Expressionists
in the 1950s. In New York, Hill participated in group exhibitions at the Korman Gallery, showing alongside artists like Alex
Katz and Vincent Longo, and held his first solo show at the Zabriskie Gallery in 1955. In the 1960s through the 1980s, he
taught art at the City University of New York. Hill's contemporaries and friends included Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Helen
Frankenthaler, Man Ray, and Robert Motherwell, among others. In the 1970s, Hill traveled to Woodstock Valley, Connecticut
to take part in John and Kathyrn Koller's experimental paper workshop. This event proved transformative for Hill's work as
he began to incorporate handmade paper and paper pulp into his art practice, and to explore the myriad of ways that paper
could be manipulated (dying, tearing, cutting, embossing, etc). By using paper pulp and other materials such as fiberglass,
string, wood, and plastics, Hill's artworks came to resemble relief paintings with strong sculptural qualities that pushed
the limits of two-dimensional expressions.
Hill's works can be found in the permanent collections of numerous museums/galleries, including the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Victoria and Albert Museum (London),
Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles), Baltimore Museum of Art, Amon Carter Museum of American Art (Fort Worth), and others.
The collection contains dozens of artworks on paper, including prints, drawings, mixed media watercolor/collage, handmade
paper, maquettes, sketchbooks, & woodblocks. Correspondence with artists such as Vincent Longo, Leo Rabkin, Sideo Fromboluti,
Barbara Chase-Riboud, Tom Doyle, and Beat Generation writer Jay DeFeo is also included. Business papers, photographs, ephemera,
slides, maquettes, books from the artist's library, and documentation of Hill's career as an opera singer round out the rest
of the archive.
adapted from article by D. Vanessa Kam, Head Librarian, Bowes Art and Architecture Library
https://library.stanford.edu/blogs/stanford-libraries-blog/2019/08/announcing-archive-visual-artist-clinton-hill
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Artists -- United States.
Clinton Hill/Allen Tran Foundation