Simple Figure in Orange

Commenting on the present lot in his monograph on the artist, Adrian Lewis states 'By way of title to the painting, Hilton inscribed the reverse with the words Simple Figure in Orange: September 1959. He did so, as elsewhere in his work, despite its lack of explicit figurative signs. The cueing of painting conventions here offers an interesting use of Western tradition whereby painting is built up in applied layers. The final touches are the tubed dark and orange strokes, preceded by the brown lower-central patch painted over the blue-black. The white ground shows through the brushed orange shape at the top. It was clearly painted over at a later point, since it sweeps over the blue-black at the bottom. The orange is lightly scumbled over the other large warm-brown shape, more densely in the area delineated by the dark arced line. Physical layering of paint creates an effect of visual interpenetration and suggests the exposure of underlayers and pentimenti. The paradox is that this transparency of forms is a deliberately wrought illusion' (see A. Lewis, Roger Hilton, Aldershot, pp. 88-89).