Roger Hilton CBE (1911–1975) was a pioneer of abstract art in post-Second World War Britain. Often associated St Ives painters, such as Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon & Bryan Wynter, but he spent much of his career in London.
He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and also in Paris, where he developed links with painters on the Continent. At the Slade he won the Orpen prize in 1930. He served in the Army in WWII, and afterwards he worked as a schoolteacher at Bryanston School, Dorset, from 1947 to 1948, and later taught at Central School of Arts and Crafts.
During the late 1950s and 1960s, Hilton’s career began to take off and he started to spend more time in west Cornwall, moving there permanently in 1965. He became a prominent member of the St. Ives School and gained an international reputation. In 1964 he exhibited at the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale winning the UNESCO Prize. Hilton was appointed CBE in 1968.
