John T. Hill

John T. Hill (born 1934 in Jackson County, Georgia) is an American artist. He began his early studies with hopes of being a painter. Soon his interest moved towards design and photography.

His career has been defined by his work in these two related fields, including his teaching in these areas for over twenty years.

Education

As an undergraduate at the University of Georgia, Hill studied painting, design, and photography, earning a BFA in design in 1955, and an MFA in painting in 1956. After a tour of infantry duty he continued graduate studies in design and photography at the Yale School of Art and Architecture.

Teaching

On graduating, he was asked to join the Yale faculty, teaching both graphic design and photography. His faculty colleagues from the 1960s and 70s included Alvin Eisenman, Walker Evans, Herbert Matter, Norman Ives, Bradbury Thompson, and Paul Rand.

Photography had been an integral part of Yale's Graphic Design Department from its beginning in 1951. Twenty years later, with photography's increased presence in the arts, Eisenman and Hill founded Yale's first Department of Photography, making it independent from its parent, Graphic Design.

Hill served as the department's first Director of Graduate Studies in Photography from 1971 to 1978.

Professional work

During more than twenty years of teaching, Hill continued to work as a photographer, making pictures for numerous books, magazines, and corporate publications. As a designer, his work is diverse, ranging from US postage stamp design to exhibition installations. Within the last ten years he has focused primarily on book and exhibition design, as well as writing.

Executor of Walker Evans' estate

John T. Hill

Three years before his death, Walker Evans asked Hill to serve as executor of his estate. On Evans' death in 1975, Hill took as a goal the expanded reading of Evans' work. The most common perception was, at best, a bathetic record of the Great Depression in the rural South. For Hill and many others, Evans' work rose high above that limited appraisal to be examined as a more universal statement surpassing the specifics of that time and place. As executor, Hill produced four books for the Evans estate. Others followed, all with that same purpose.

During and after his 19-year tenure as Evans' executor, Hill created many exhibitions of gelatin silver prints made from Evans' negatives. Within the last ten years, Hill has used the digital techniques of scanning, file adjustment, and digital printing to interpret Evans' images.[1] These digital tools allow maintaining detailed information in both dark and light passages, in a manner not possible with gelatin silver printing. Hill has used these digital files to produce prints, exhibitions, and books that extend the appreciation of Evans' intricate and multi-layered work. These exhibitions have been shown in museums and galleries in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Korea, New York City, and numerous other American institutions.

With Hill's help the Evans archive was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art[2] in 1994. There it has received appreciation for its intrinsic value as the work of one of America's seminal artists. Proper conservation and cataloging can only be realized by an institution with such perception, size and depth. The major portion of that archive is now available for study online.

Authorship

Hill has also produced books presenting the work of wide-ranging talents, including Walker Evans, W. Eugene Smith, Edward Weston, Erwin Hauer, and Peter Sekaer.

In 2013 Hill designed the book Calder by Matter[3] for Cahiers d'Art. It is Herbert Matter's intimate account of Calder's work and his family life for over thirty years.

Books related to Walker Evans produced by J. Hill:

A partial list of books

Designed, edited, authored, co-authored, or produced by John T. Hill:

The Eye of Walker Evans
Luc Sante
On the occasion of the exhibition Walker Evans: New York
(Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 28 July-11 Oct 1998),
broadly surveys the life and work of the American photographer Walker Evans.

Walker Evans: First and Last,Evans,[4]
published, Harper and Row, New York, 1978
Seker Warburg, London, 1978
design, picture sequence, production, JTH

Walker Evans at Work,[5]
essay, Jerry L. Thompson
published, Harper and Row, New York, 1982
Thames and Hudson, London, 1982
concept, design, and picture editing, JTH

Walker Evans Havana 1933 [6]
published, Contrejour, Paris, 1989
Pantheon, New York, 1989
concept, design and picture editing, JTH

Walker Evans: The Hungry Eye,[7]
co-authors, John T. Hill, Gilles Mora.
Les Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1993[8]
Harry N. Abrams. New York, 1993
winner of the Prix de Nadar, Paris and
The Krasna Krausz Book Award, London.
design concept and supervision, JTH[9]

W. Eugene Smith Photographs 1934-1975[10]
co-authors, John T. Hill, Gilles Mora.
Les Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1988
Harry N. Abrams. New York, 1988
Thames and Hudson, London, 1988
design and picture editing, John and Dorothy Hill

Walker Evans Simple Secrets, [11]
published, High Museum of Art and
Harry N. Abrams. New York, 1998
design, picture editing, and production, JTH
honored by the AIGA as one of 50 Books of the Year.

Walker Evans: Depth of Field
John T. Hil and Heinz Liesbrock, co-authors
Prestel Verlag, Munich, 2015

Edward Weston: Forms of Passion, Passion of Forms[12]
Les Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1998
Harry N. Abrams. New York, 1998
Thames and Hudson, London, 1998
design and picture editing, John and Dorothy Hill

Walker Evans [13]
biography by James Mellow
published by Basic Books, New York, 1999
design, picture editing, John and Dorothy Hill
honored by the AIGA as one of 50 Books of the Year

The Idea of Cuba: Alex Harris[14]
published by University of New Mexico Press
in association with The Center of Documentary Studies,
Duke University, 2003
design, JTH

Herbert Matter[15]
published by Stanford University, 2005
on the occasion of the acquisition of the Matter Archive
design, picture editing, separations, and production, JTH

Erwin Hauer: Continua
Architectural Screens and Walls
published, Princeton Architectural Press. New York, 2004
design and picture editing, JTH

Walker Evans: Lyric Documentary, author and picture editor, JTH
published by Steidl, Göttingen, Germany, 2007
book design, and digital separations, JTH

Walker Evans American Photographs
Books on Books,
Errata Editions, New York, 2008.
primary essay, “The Legacy of Seeing,” JTH

Peter Sekaer: Signs of Life
author and picture editor, JTH
published by Steidl, Göttingen, Germany, 2010
book design, and digital separations, JTH

Calder by Matter
essays by jed Perl and John T. Hill
published by Cahiers d’Art, Paris, 2013
book design, separations, and printing supervision, JTH

May Day at Yale, Recollections 1970[16][17]
Henry Chauncey, Thomas Strong, and John T. Hill, co-authors
publ. 2015

Photography exhibitions produced by Hill

Herbert Matter Photographs by Hebert Matter
Foto Festival, Arles. France.

Peter Sekaer:
Photographs by Peter Sekaer
Foto Festival, Arles. France.

Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver
Evans’ Centennial Exhibition, 2003
Yale University Art School Gallery
archival pigment prints
produced by John T. Hill and Sven Martson

Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver
UBS Gallery and Yale School of Art
Avenue of Americas, 2006

Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver
Museo di Roma, Palazzo Brachi, 2005-06

Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver
Museo Alinari, Piazza S.M. Novella
Firenze, Italy, 2007

Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver
Fenimore Art Museum[18]
Cooperstown, New York June, 2009

Walker Evans: Depth of Field
September 27, 2015 – January 10, 2016
Josef Albers Museum (Bottrop, Germany)
Reviews: NYTIMES 2016, slate.com 2016

The art of Walker Evans[19]
Sandra Naddaff and Leigh Hafrey Three Columns Gallery
2014

The Exacting Eye of Walker Evans
Florence Griswold Museum

Walker Evans's "Havana 1933"
Laguardia Community College
2013

Exhibitions or work by Hill

Four Directions in Modern Photography
Yale University Art Gallery
December 14, 1972 -February 25, 1973

Bulldog and Panther Exhibition
Yale University Art Gallery
2014

Museum collections

International Center for Photography

Florence Griswold Museum
4 prints
Walker Evans House, April 1975
Digital archival print on inkjet paper, 13 x 15 inches
Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of John T. Hill, 2012.5.1
View of Walker Evan's home interior. Focus is on a large bookshelf--one way sign image hangs above bookshelf.

Walker Evans House, April 1975
Digital archival print on inkjet paper, 13 1/2 x 13 inches
Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of John T. Hill, 2012.5.2
View of sink with papers, can pull tabs

Walker Evans House, April 1975
Digital archival print on inkjet paper, 13 x 15 inches
Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of John T. Hill, 2012.5.3
Interior view of living room--tidy --Evan's collection is prominently displayed

Walker Evans House, April 1975
Digital archival print on inkjet paper, 13 x 15 inches
Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of John T. Hill, 2012.5.4
Interior view of Walker Evans home, living room sofa shown with large sign "when in the mood for 'LOBSTER' Mactriffs!"

References

  1. ↑ Marth, Eric. Printing American Photographs
  2. ↑ Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. ↑ Calder by Matter
  4. ↑ Walker. Walker Evans, first and last. HarperCollins Publishers, 1978.
  5. ↑ Evans, Walker. Walker Evans at work. Icon, 1994.
  6. ↑ Evans, Walker, and Gilles Mora. Walker Evans: Havana 1933. Pantheon, 1989.
  7. ↑ Mora, Gilles, and John T. Hill. Walker Evans: the hungry eye. Thames & Hudson, 2004.
  8. ↑ Boxer, Sarah. 3 Degrees of Separation on the Road to Art https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/07/arts/photography-review-3-degrees-of-separation-on-the-road-to-art.html
  9. ↑ Grundberg, Andy. Photography Books of the Year. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/05/books/photography.html?pagewanted=all
  10. ↑ BAURET, Gabriel, et al. W. Eugene Smith: Photographs, 1934-1975. HN Abrams, New York, 1998.
  11. ↑ Evans, Walker, Ellen Fleurov, and Benjamin A. Hill. Walker Evans, simple secrets: photographs from the collection of Marian and Benjamin A. Hill. Harry N Abrams Inc, 1997.
  12. ↑ Weston, Edward. Forms of Passion: Passion of Forms. Ed. Gilles Mora. Thames and Hudson, 1995.
  13. ↑ Mellow, James R. Walker Evans. Basic books, 2008.
  14. ↑ Alex Harris. The Idea of Cuba. UNM Press, 2007.
  15. ↑ Fernandez, Chantal. Designer’s Life and Work Explored http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2010/02/23/designers-life-and-works-explored/
  16. ↑ Avoiding Armageddon in the Elm City: May Day 1970 Recollected http://www.courant.com/community/hc-ugc-article-avoiding-armageddon-in-the-elm-city-may-day-2015-04-12-story.html
  17. ↑ Home / Connecticut / Avoiding Armageddon: How the 1970 Riots in New Haven Never Happened Avoiding Armageddon: How the 1970 Riots in New Haven Never Happened http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/avoiding-armageddon-how-the-1970-riots-in-new-haven-never-happened/
  18. ↑ https://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
  19. ↑ Brea, Cathy. The Art of Walker Evans http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/01/the-art-of-walker-evans/
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.