The Scholart Selection is pleased to announce that we are opening the solo exhibition of the internationally acclaimed artist Charles Christopher Hill.

On view through Mar 26th, 2023, Objects of Contemplation could be recognized as a passage epitomizing the past and visioning the future. Showcasing Hill’s over 40 works dating from 1985 to the present in various scales, Objects of Contemplation delivers a breadth of his inspirations and material utilization through various stages of his artistic expression.

Hill’s works from the 80s primarily employ collages of torn paper which have stitching marks and weathered hints. However, he became frustrated with trying to repair fingerprint damage as he had to repaint the whole painting to cover the disfiguration. In about 2013 he started to paint on paper as he believed that fingerprints would not be an ongoing problem. His first paintings were simple shapes derived from Tantric paintings from Rajasthan. Starting in 2018 Hill turned to paint larger compositions and his use of paper became secondary to the use of the white stabilizing material that he had been using, gesso. Inspired by the burnished surface of Tibetan Thangkas, the artist discovered that he could burnish the gesso to a low gloss and intensify the color saturation of the images. Hill also started combining geometric shapes into conglomerations that could be interpreted as recognizable images. “That was a happy accident that led me in 2019 to paint objects that I encountered in my day-to-day life,” said Hill. At about the same time he started adding dark horizon lines or a dark halo around the central image.

The patience the artist paid to hand-tear paper and cohere the fragments layer by layer resonates with the remitting effort to burnish the gesso. Though we can see modern elements such as newspaper prints and hat shapes, the show still dragged us to that primal but genuine age. According to the artist, “my work builds on visual clues left by previous cultures; I like physical anthropology.” A palpable chronological string has revealed - the sophisticated backdrop is simplified into swathes of plain colors, while daily objects are condensed into sheer shapes surrounded by exposed raw surface edges. When the audiences start to trace the shapes and colors, they immerse themselves into the void as if the paintings serve as an entrance towards the cosmos. The minimalist portrayal on canvas brings up a fascinating contrast with the approaching finesse of Hill’s technique while echoing the Taoist idea - “the simplest is the most profound.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Charles Christopher Hill is a world-renowned artist who lives and works in Venice, California.

For decades, Hill's work has been widely exhibited at museums in California and around the world. His work is featured in many prestigious museum collections, such as the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation,the Albuquerque Museum, New Mexico, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.