Relief Construction (Five Regions Relief)

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 plastic in the front plane of the relief. The regions are divided by pathways, marked out in a rear plane of black plastic, in widths that relate to the aluminium angle sections embedded in 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.

Relief Construction (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]

Michael Morris acquired this work from Anthony Hill in 1963.

Lisa Newby, February 2021.

[1] This is outlined in detail in Anthony Hill, ‘The Structural Syndrome in Constructive Art’, inModule, 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 Sainsbury Centre collection includes two of the works Hill exhibited, see 31193.