Clinton Hill at Andre Zarre - Brief Article

Clinton Hill's career spans five decades; for many years he has made polychrome wooden constructions that, in their angular energy, recall Constructivist sculpture. His art is a purely formalist expression of colorful shapes that balance and oppose each other within a confined depth. The sculptures, which can attain a rather large size, begin to feel like musical variations on a single theme: the beauty and restraint of a geometric idiom.

Despite the saturated hues, a quietness, partially the result of craft, characterizes the sculpture. The artist teases out slight changes from piece to piece, but the basic forms remain similar. The content is the form; there is neither symbolism nor any specific cultural reference beyond the physical construction of the work.

The most recent piece in the show, Blue Around (1999), is a moderately large 52 by 41 inches, but only a few inches in depth. It centers on a blue circle, constructed from curved planes of wood, that hangs from what looks like a shelf--a horizontal brown wooden slab embellished with thin horizontal strips. Attached to the blue circle are panels of painted wood that extend beyond its edges. They often angle diagonally downward from the upper left. The intense, matte colors accentuate small elements--for example, a green dowel that crosses the length of the work.

Still, the works are not entirely cool. Encrustations of paint contrast with simple shapes. The color speaks of emotion even as the composition is intellectual and distanced. Pieces are carefully but not precisely joined, so that the works feel slightly rough. In Construction: Moonshine (1991), curving and straight wires elaborate on the dowels and bits of wood whose straightforward arrangement acts as a ground for the other elements. Wire again appears in Curve Around (1994), which is dominated by wooden ellipses curving down and to the right. Hill makes art that looks to its own energies for inspiration; his sculptures elegantly comment on modernist form.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group