Five Regions Relief
Anthony Hill
Life Story
This constructed relief is part of a series that Anthony Hill developed between 1960 and 1962, using eight cuts to divide a grid of twenty-five squares into five ‘regions’. In this work, the five regions are set out in white in the front plane of the relief, which is framed by a back layer of black plastic. The five regions are divided by pathways on a middle layer of white plastic, in widths that relate to the aluminium angle sections embedded in the two white planes of the relief. The carefully balanced relationships between the elements and surfaces of the relief change according to the light and the angle from which the work is viewed.
Hill used mathematical formulas to determine different ways of mapping the five regions, the pathways between them and the distribution of aluminium angle sections in this series of works. [1] He was keen to demonstrate the variety that could be achieved within these self-imposed rules, which he hoped would encourage a more precise aesthetic engagement.
Five Regions Relief was first exhibited with four other reliefs from the Five Regions series in Anthony Hill’s joint exhibition with Gillian Wise at the ICA in London in 1963. Hill’s statement for the exhibition catalogue summarises his key concerns at the time: ‘My present interests are in developing an autonomous art expression where the work will function and operate with light, space and movement.’ [2]
Lisa Newby, February 2021
[1] This is outlined in detail in Anthony Hill, ‘The Structural Syndrome in Constructive Art’, in Module, Symmetry, Proportion, ed. by György Kepes (London: Studio Vista, 1966), pp.171-3.
[2] Anthony Hill and Gillian Wise, Reliefs/Structures, exh. cat. (London: ICA, 1963), unpaginated. The work is illustrated in the catalogue. The Sainsbury Centre collection includes two of the works Hill exhibited, see 31541. Other exhibited works from the Five Regions series can be found in the collections at Tate, Whitworth Art Gallery and Huddersfield Art Gallery. ‘Relief Construction’, Anthony Hill, 1960–2 | Tate; Five Regions Relief | Whitworth Art Gallery (man.ac.uk); Construction | Art UK
Exhibitions
Anthony Hill and Gillian Wise: Reliefs/Structures, ICA, London, 1963
Anthony Hill: A Retrospective Exhibition, Hayward Gallery, London, 1983
Constructed, 40 Years of the UEA Collection, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, 2008
'Rhythm and Geometry: Constructivist art in Britain since 1951', Sainsbury Centre, UK, 02/10/2021 - 17/07/2022
'Rhythm and Geometry: Constructivist art in Britain since 1951', Djanogly Art Gallery, UK, 07/03/2023 - 23/07/2023
Further Reading
Anthony Hill, ‘The Structural Syndrome in Constructive Art’, in Module, Symmetry, Proportion, ed. by György Kepes (London: Studio Vista, 1966), pp.171-3.
Alastair Grieve, Constructed Abstract Art in England: A Neglected Avant-Garde (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2005), p.190.
Tania Moore and Calvin Winner (eds.), Rhythm and Geometry: Constructivist art in Britain since 1951 (Norwich: Sainsbury Centre, 2021), p.26.