Anthony Cedric Graham Hill (23 April 1930 – 13 October 2020), also known as Achill Redo, was an English

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

-maker, and mathematician. He was originally a member of the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

British art movement termed the Constructionist Group whose work was essentially in the international constructivist tradition.

Biography

His fellow members in this group were Victor Pasmore,

Adrian Heath Adrian Paul Heath (born 11 January 1961) is an English football manager and former player. He most recently served as head coach of Major League Soccer club Minnesota United until October 2023. As a player, he is best known for his six season ...

John Ernest John Ernest (May 6, 1922 – July 21, 1994) was an American-born constructivist abstract artist. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1922. After living and working in Sweden and Paris from 1946 to 1951, he moved to London, England, where he lived and w ...

, Kenneth Martin,

Mary Martin Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in ''South Pacific (musica ...

, Gillian Wise and Stephen Gilbert. Hill was born on 23 April 1930 in London, and studied at the

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art school, art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's beca ...

and the Central School of Art and Crafts between 1948 and 1951. He began painting in the style of

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

and

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

in 1948, but quickly moved on to geometric abstract idioms. He made his first relief in 1954 and abandoned painting for relief-making in 1956. One feature of these reliefs was the use of non-traditional materials such as industrial aluminium and Perspex. His first one-man show of reliefs was held at the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an modernism, artistic and cultural centre on The Mall (London), The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps a ...

in 1958. He participated in exhibitions of abstract and constructivist art in the UK, Paris, Germany, Holland, Poland, Switzerland and the United States. In 1978, he exhibited in the Arts Council's exhibition, Constructive Context, alongside a number of artists such as Jeffrey Steele and Peter Lowe who had begun working in a systematised constructive mode in the mid to late 1960s and came together in the Systems Group in December 1969. Hill, however, along with the Martins, declined membership of this group. In 1983, the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...

held a major retrospective exhibition of Hill's constructivist work. Hill had a lifelong fascination with mathematics, and there were many mathematicians among his circle of acquaintances. Together with his colleague

, he made contributions to

graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

( crossing number) and in 1979, in recognition of a number of his mathematical papers, he was elected a member of the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...

and made a visiting research associate in the Department of Mathematics at

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies f ...

, London. Although almost all his reliefs have an underlying mathematical structure or logic, he was always insistent that in his art, in his own words, "the mathematical thematic or mathematical process can only be a component: one is calculating or organising something which is clearly not mathematical." From the late 1980s onward, working in parallel with his systems-based work but in a very different mode, Hill exhibited dadaist pictures and collages under the pseudonym Achill Redo. The

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

, London has collections under both of the names Anthony Hill and Achill Redo. A summary of Hill's life and constructivist work, together with that of the other British Constructivists, is found in Alastair Grieve's 2005 book.

Personal life

Hill married Yuriko Kaetsu (1953–2013) in 1978. He died on 13 October 2020 at the age of 90.

References

Sources

* Fowler, Alan. Essay in online ''

Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on ...

'' No. 24, December 2009, 'A Rational Aesthetic'. * Fowler, Alan, Essay, 'The Systems Group and its Constructivist Context', in exhibition catalogue 'A Rational Aesthetic', Southampton City Art Gallery, 2009. * * * Harary, Frank and Hill, Anthony. On the number of crossings in a complete graph. ''Proceedings of the Edinburgh Math. Society'' (2), 13:333-338, 1962/1963. * Hill, Anthony, editor ''Data: Directions in Art, Theory and Aesthetics'', Faber and Faber. 1968. * Hill, Anthony, editor ''Duchamp: Passim'', Craftsman House. 1994. *

External links

Artworks in the Tate collection by Anthony Hill

Artworks in the Tate collection under the pseudonym Achill Redo
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Anthony 1930 births 2020 deaths 20th-century English male artists 20th-century English mathematicians 20th-century English painters 20th-century English sculptors 21st-century English male artists 21st-century English mathematicians 21st-century English painters 21st-century English sculptors Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art Constructivism (art) English contemporary artists English male painters English male sculptors London Mathematical Society Mathematical artists Mathematicians from London Painters from the London Borough of Camden People educated at Bryanston School People from Hampstead + Sculptors from London

Biography

Personal life

See also

References

Sources

External links