Hilton, Roger (1911–1975)

English painter. His uncompromising abstract works of the 1950s were heavily influenced by Mondrian. Later associated with the St Ives School, Cornwall, he developed a spontaneous figurative style; his paintings of the 1960s, often landscapes and nudes, being distinguished by an earthy eroticism and great variety in the handling of the oils. The exuberant Oi yoi yoi (1963; Tate Gallery, London) is typical.

Although during the last years of his life he was compelled by ill health to confine himself to work in charcoal and gouache, his works lost none of their childlike energy and joy.

Hilton was born in Northwood, Middlesex, and studied at the Slade School of Art from 1929 to 1931. He spent several years in Paris during the 1930s, where he absorbed the many influences of the ‘School of Paris’. In 1964 he won the UNESCO prize at the Venice Biennale.