http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8kw5p38 No online items Guide to the Clinton Hill Papers M2534 Department of Special Collections and University Archives 2020 Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford 94305-6064 [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Guide to the Clinton Hill Papers M2534 1 M2534 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Title: Clinton Hill papers Creator: Hill, Clinton, 1922-2003 source: Clinton Hill/Allen Tran Foundation Identifier/Call Number: M2534 Physical Description: 30 Linear Feet(56 containers) Date (inclusive): circa 1930s-2000s Abstract: The papers of visual artist Clinton Hill (1922–2003) contains both his artwork and his archive, including correspondence, photographs, exhibit publicity, personal ephemera and other material. Preferred Citation [identification of item], Clinton Hill papers (M2534). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanfordy Libraries, Stanford, California. Conditions Governing Use While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns. Conditions Governing Access Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Immediate Source of Acquisition Gift, 2019. Accessions 2019-390 and 2019-475. Scope and Contents The papers of visual artist Clinton Hill (1922–2003) contains both his artwork and his archive, including correspondence, photographs, exhibit publicity, personal ephemera and other material. Hill, whose formative years as an artist took place largely in New York in the 1950s and 1960s during the heyday of abstract expressionism, created an extensive and varied body of work. His paintings, mixed-media works on paper, assemblages, sculptures, and prints embodied a variety of styles making his work somewhat difficult to categorize. What is evident, however, are indelible links to abstraction, minimalism, and constructivism. His strength as a colorist, the lyricism of his geometric lines, and his boundless appetite for experimentation with materials and process are some of the defining elements of his oeuvre. Hill was raised on a ranch in Payette, Idaho. His training as an artist began in Oregon in the 1940s, continued in Italy and France in the 1950s, and ended at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York (1949–1951). In New York, his teachers included German expressionist painter Max Beckmann and John Ferren, a founding member of The Club, a group formed by Abstract Expressionists in the 1950s. In New York, Hill participated in group exhibitions at the Korman Gallery, showing alongside artists like Alex Katz and Vincent Longo, and held his first solo show at the Zabriskie Gallery in 1955. In the 1960s through the 1980s, he taught art at the City University of New York. Hill's contemporaries and friends included Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Man Ray, and Robert Motherwell, among others. In the 1970s, Hill traveled to Woodstock Valley, Connecticut to take part in John and Kathyrn Koller's experimental paper workshop. This event proved transformative for Hill's work as he began to incorporate handmade paper and paper pulp into his art practice, and to explore the myriad of ways that paper could be manipulated (dying, tearing, cutting, embossing, etc). By using paper pulp and other materials such as fiberglass, string, wood, and plastics, Hill's artworks came to resemble relief paintings with strong sculptural qualities that pushed the limits of two-dimensional expressions. Hill's works can be found in the permanent collections of numerous museums/galleries, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles), Baltimore Museum of Art, Amon Carter Museum of American Art (Fort Worth), and others. The collection contains dozens of artworks on paper, including prints, drawings, mixed media watercolor/collage, handmade paper, maquettes, sketchbooks, & woodblocks. Correspondence with artists such as Vincent Longo, Leo Rabkin, Sideo Fromboluti, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Tom Doyle, and Beat Generation writer Jay DeFeo is also included. Business papers, photographs, ephemera, slides, maquettes, books from the artist's library, and documentation of Hill's career as an opera singer round out the rest of the archive. adapted from article by D. Vanessa Kam, Head Librarian, Bowes Art and Architecture Library https://library.stanford.edu/blogs/stanford-libraries-blog/2019/08/announcing-archive-visual-artist-clinton-hill Guide to the Clinton Hill Papers M2534 2 M2534 Subjects and Indexing Terms Artists -- United States. Clinton Hill/Allen Tran Foundation Series 1. Correspondence Box 24, folder 6-7 Doris Matthews circa 1966-2001 Box 24, folder 8 Pat Adams & Vincent Longo 1957-1980 Creator: Longo, Vincent, 1923- Creator: Adams, Pat, 1928- Box 24, folder 9 Jay DeFeo 1960-1966 Creator: DeFeo, Jay, 1929-1989 Box 24, folder 10 [Jo &/or Irv] Boyar circa 1960-1961 Box 24, folder 11 Pat Adams 1960-2002 Creator: Adams, Pat, 1928- Box 24, folder 12 card from Nikki, Demetra & Ed 1956 Box 24, folder 13 letter from unknown (possibly Pat Adams) 1980 Box 25, folder 1 Martha Bloom card 1982 Box 25, folder 2 Colleen card 1994 Box 25, folder 3 Pat [Hammerson?] card 1994 Box 25, folder 4 Cynthia card Box 25, folder 5 Mary P. 1965 Box 25, folder 6 Louis Di Zenno 1954 Box 25, folder 7 Personal correspondence from Clinton & Allen Box 25, folder 8 Martica Sawain card Box 25, folder 9 Johnny Koch 1959 Box 25, folder 10 Kelly Chamberlain 1966 Box 25, folder 11 Jo & Irv [Boyar] card 1960 Box 25, folder 12 Mary & Jack De Merchant 1960 Box 25, folder 13 Hui 1959-1961 Box 25, folder 14 Boyars 1956-1960 Box 25, folder 15 Kate Hanley [grandmother] 1946 Box 25, folder 16 Mom & Dad 1955 Box 25, folder 17 letters to Hill in India 1956 Box 25, folder 18 Thomas George (one postcard to Zabriskie Gallery re: Hill, one letter to Hill care of David Herbert Gallery) 1955, 1960 Box 25, folder 19 Bordighera Tourist Office re: 1st Exhibition of American Painters in Europe (La Mostra dei pittori americani in Europa) 1952 Box 25, folder 20 Allen Tran 1956-1959 Box 25, folder 21 Miscellaneous postcards (Dorothea Speyer, Barbara Chase, Diana & Larry Fane, Sergio Tossi) Box 25, folder 22 Henry L. Hess Jr. 1956 Box 25, folder 23 Neussein Francois postcard to Mademoiselle De Berly 1913 Box 25, folder 24 David Acton Box 25, folder 25 Al & Don to Clinton & Allen Box 25, folder 26 Unsigned postcard 1954 Box 25, folder 27 Letter from "P?" 1981 Box 25, folder 28 Small collage signed Rochelle Box 25, folder 29 Thank you letter signed "Ch." 1980 Box 25, folder 30 Dorothy Fratt 1967 Guide to the Clinton Hill Papers M2534 3 M2534 Series 1. Correspondence Box 25, folder 32 Gustav D. Klimann re: conservation of Hill's Mike Rothko "Black over Blue" painting (with photographs) 1972 Box 25, Folder 34 James Tuley Box 25, folder 35 Tran family to Allen & Clinton Box 25, folder 36 Letters with illegible names Box 25, folder 37 Institute of International Education 1967 Box 25, folder 38 Joe [Stefanelli?] Box 26 Miscellaneous postcards mostly 1980s-1990s Scope and Contents Majority are signed with first name only. Series 2. Clinton Hill artwork Sketchbooks and sketches Scope and Contents Includes larger series of nude life drawings on large sketchbook paper. Box 29, folder 1 D.1970.003 Box 29, folder 2 D.1970.006 Box 29, folder 3 D.1970.007 Box 30, folder 1-2 Plants/flora Mostly Summer 1972 Box 30, folder 3 [Figure drawing with purple watercolor] Box 30, folder 4 [Two figure drawings in pencil on one sheet] Box 30, folder 5 [Figure drawing in pencil] Box 30, folder 6 [Three simple figure drawings] Box 30, folder 7-8 [Several figure drawings, various media] Box 30, folder 9 [Figure drawings - couples] Box 30, folder 10 [Several figure portraits in ink] Box 30, [several figure portraits in ink and brown watercolor] folder 11-14 Box 31, [figure drawings in various media, some dated 1971] folder 1-20 Box 32, volume 1 [bound in wood] March-April 1995 Box 32, volume 2 [yellow spiral ring notebook with drawing on cover] 1994-1996 Box 32, volume 3 12 Days in July 1986 Box 32, volume 4 [small notebook bound in black leather] 1996-1997 Box 32, volume 5 ["C. Hill 1989" sketch pad with red paper cover, only partially filled] July 1989 Box 32, volume 6 [green hard bound sketch book, ink drawing on cover] Box 33, volume 1 [bound in black leather, some notes & addresses] 1995-1996 Box 33, volume 2 [Omni brand sketchbook] 1986 Box 33, volume 3 [National brand notebook] Box 33, volume 4 [hard bound, with "Radioactive Materials" sticker] Box 33, volume 5 [Strathmore brand spiral bound sketchbook] 1988-1990 Box 33, volume 6 [spiral bound, white plastic covers] 1997-1998 Box 33, volume 7 [spiral bound with artwork on cover] 1986-1988 Box 34, folder 1 [spiral ring notebook, cover blacked out] 1985-1986 Box 34, folder 2 [black Filrose sketch pad] July 1968 Box 35, folder 1 [small sketchbook with drawing on cover] 1988 Box 35, folder 2 [small sketchbook with drawing on cover] 1995-1995 Paintings & drawings - works on paper Box 36, folder 1 Traces Box 36, folder 2 Hill Christmas card Box 36, folder 3-9 Hand-painted Marilyn Pearl Gallery exhibit notices 1989 Guide to the Clinton Hill Papers M2534 4 M2534 Series 2.