Biography
Figurative and abstract painter and draughtsman, teacher, a key member of the St.Ives art colony in Cornwall and the last major painter to settle there. He was born in Northwood, Middlesex, the family name being Hildesheim, changed during World War I because of anti-German feeling. Studied at Slade School of fine Art, 1929-31, under Henry Tonks; although he won a Slade Scholarship in 1931 he did not take it up, but during the 1930’s studied for periods in Paris, part of the time with Roger Bissiere at Academie Ranson.

First solo show was at Bloomsbury Gallery in 1936. During World War II he served in the Army, part of the time as a Commando, for about three years being a prisoner of war after the Dieppe raid of 1942. Was a schoolteacher for a time after the war, also teaching at Central School of Arts and Crafts, 1954-6.

His first abstract paintings date from 1950. During the 1950s and 1960s Hilton began to spend more time in west Cornwall, and the landscape there influenced his pictures, which were never to be as entirely abstract again as those of the early 1950s.

Hilton took part in numerous group shows in Britain and abroad, winning first prize at John Moores Liverpool exhibition in 1963. Retrospective exhibition at ICA in 1958, and similarly important shows included Serpentine Gallery in 1974; Graves Art Gallery, and touring; in Sheffield 1980; Leicester Polytechnic Gallery and tour, 1984-5; Hayward Gallery, 1993-4; and Tate Gallery St.Ives, 1997-8. Alcoholism hindered Hilton’s output; he was confined to bed by illness (he suffered peripheral neuritis) from 1972. Died at Botallack, Cornwall.