Predominantly a painter and rug maker, Rod Hill studied at Goldsmiths College, Camberwell School of Art, Byam Shaw School of Art and the New York Studio School. His work was exhibited widely throughout the UK including the Royal Academy of Arts, ICA London and the National Portrait Gallery.

Rod was born in London in 1944 into a family of artists and designers. The son of John and Sheila Hill, his father’s company Green & Abbott was notable for collaborations with Salvador Dali–including the iconic Mae West Lips Sofa–and the remodelled interiors of Monkton House, Edward James’s country house in West Dean, which Hill's firm coordinated alongside Dali, Hugh Casson and Christopher Nicholson.

Rod was sent to board at Bryanston School, where he met his lifelong friend Tim Nicholson, son of Christopher and EQ Nicholson (and nephew of Ben), with whom he later collaborated on rug designs. Rod’s son Albert Hill recalls “Rug making is a strong tradition in the Nicholson family going back generations and I think that Rod quite liked being associated with that lineage.”

Like his famous uncle, the artist Derek Hill (1916-2000), who was often hosted at villa I Tatti in Florence by his friend Bernard Berenson, Rod spent a year in Italy after leaving Bryanston. Maisie Hill recalls that her father believed “Italy gave him a grounding in how to view, understand and criticise art.” Further travels followed including to Russia, China, USA, Greece, France, Abhazia, Finland, Ireland and Tanzania. 

Rod was interested in the whole creative process, recalls his son Moby Hill “involving thinking, talking, doing, viewing, collecting, archiving”. His library is a physical manifestation of that process. It is a great pleasure to present a selection from it below.

Maisie Hill:

Rod Hill appreciated and admired true artists. His definition of this was somebody who has the conviction to dedicate their time and focus to creating. He sought out and connected with people who took their work seriously. This included artists at all stages of their career, not just those who are established. Making links was important, understanding who went to which art school, where they practised, which galleries showed their work.

Collecting books and exhibition catalogues fed into Rod’s understanding of how the art world fitted together. He especially loved publications that mentioned someone he knew, a place that he had been….Catalogues seemed to be a favourite for Rod. He liked the sense that they are a tangible part of a real event and they reflect the fact that art is actively happening. Owning a catalogue is close to being there, at the exhibition. Catalogues are part of a small print run so Rod liked the fact that they were rarer items. He did not mind the condition of his books and catalogues, the content was more important. The collection was built up over his whole life. He would search out an art gallery or book shop in every place that he visited. He regularly made trips across the UK to see exhibitions that he was interested in.

Rod spent a year in New York. During that year he connected with the New York Studio School, suggesting that he helped them to reorganise their library. This was typical of how Rod approached situations that inspired him. He offered his interest and experience, being useful, as a way of becoming involved. Some of the catalogues in this collection probably came from New York; ones that represent artists that the Studio School was no longer interested in. In a similar way Rod approached Lawrences auction house, helping them to organise and hang pictures for the sale. When they realised how knowledgable Rod was about art it didn’t take long for them to consult him about works of art that came in to the auction house, and for Rod to visit clients that were wanting their artworks valued.

Rod read through his collection as a way of relaxing, and later on in his life, of reminiscing. He knew every item that he owned. If a picture or artist came up in conversation it would be a prompt to find a relevant book. 

Painting was probably Rod’s main interest when viewing art, but as mentioned, it was the sincerity of the artist that was a big factor. The artists that I am aware of that he followed were: Number one - Roger Hilton. Gerald Wilde, Tim Behrens, Ken Kiff are names that I recognise. My brothers will know more on this subject!

To go back to the beginning;

Rod’s father, John Hill was an interior decorator (as it was then called). This profession included advising on colour schemes and room layout. John designed and commissioned wall paper and furniture. He also suggested to the client which art works to buy. John was known for choosing contemporary artists of the time, rather than standard established works. John’s brother, Derek Hill is a well known artist. He painted portraits, including many of well known figures of the day, some of which are in the National Portrait Gallery. Derek also painted landscapes, especially in Donegal, Ireland, where he had strong connections.

Rod went to Bryanston boarding school. The school is was, and still is, admired for its encouragement of artistic creativity. At school Rod spent much of his time in the art room. He also found an old farm building in the school grounds that he made into his ‘studio’. 

When Rod finished school he had no interest in going to university. His parents sent him to Italy for a year with the intention that he explored and soaked up the art and culture. Rod greatly enjoyed the year and agreed that it did give him a grounding in how to view, understand and criticise art. The very loose way of educating became Rods manner in encouraging others. He did not dictate a right or wrong but let others come to their own opinions, always interested in what they were. Rod loved an art discussion, often being controversial as a way of getting things going.

Tim Nicholson also went to Bryanston, and stayed friends with Rod throughout his life. When Rod created rugs he often used designs by other artists, with Tim’s being used for a number of them. Rod always chose designs that were bold and with strong colours. Using the work of other artists that he knew personally was a way of keeping up connections with them and of appreciating their art. John Hill created rugs as well, but using needle point. He also made cushions in this way. Knotted rugs were much more suited to Rod’s way of working, more physical and immediate. The first rugs were tufted wool, but later on Rod favoured rag rugs, using long lengths of fabric. The rag rugs became so deep and textured that they were better viewed as wall hangings.

The loft in Rod’s house in Crewekerne was converted into his library space, and rug making studio, according to the design of Rods architect friend, David Tomkinson. David practised in London, first as CGHP architects and more recently O’Shea and Tomkinson. Rod also had a large studio, not in the house for painting and scrapbooks. It is this studio that the photos a depict. Of course rugs and paint do not mix, so the second space in the loft was needed. It also amused Rod that even when he was in one workspace he would still have the option of ‘going to my studio for the afternoon.’

Rod also painted, paintings with strong colours and forms. He went life drawing weekly, creating figures full of expression rather than detail. Another creative medium was producing scrapbooks. I wrote this passage as part of our memorial event for dad.

Dad’s Scrapbooks:

Of Dad’s many art works I love his scrap books the best. They are so physical; weighty, bursting out of the spine, crackling with glue, shedding flakes of paint.

We had to be careful at home about what went in the waste paper bin. Notes and lists would reappear, out of context, on the pages of scrapbooks. There is humour in them, constructed out of the jolt of juxtaposition. Amateur athletes pasted on to classic cars. Or our local mayor, fuzzy from newsprint, surrounded in gold foil. Best of all for me is the surprise of finding an old family photo mixed in with the paper and paint.  

I looked through Dad’s book collection a lot. Especially when I was living in the house as a child, then teenager. We did not have a TV and there were books in every room. Usually I would pick up a book through boredom but then became interested in the pictures inside. Photography books especially fascinated me. The images were immediate, with strong compositions and lively subjects. I felt that I got to know America of the 50s and 60s through the pictures. I became a photographer myself, inspired by the form of a photo-book and how it can tell a story. In my work I chased the ultimate street photo in the same way as first Cartier-Bresson and then Robert Frank, Joel Meyerowitz etc.

Moby Hill:

Painting and drawing the way I do is completely derived from Dad and Mum and our upbringing which certainly included Dad's library which I looked at regularly growing up- particularly when Dad wasn't there. I didn't read much but looked at all the pictures and copied everything I liked.

The volumes of exhibition catalogues show Dad's interest in art collecting. The bias of his library will be towards what features in his collection which inevitably will be painting and drawing - but not exclusively. Dad was truly passionate about art and the whole creative process involving thinking, talking, doing, viewing, collecting, archiving etc., so anything resonating with that would interest him. 

The scrapbooks are much more than that. The influences are literally everything and anything without any agenda at all apart from brushes, lots of glue, poster paint and scissors.  Dad always supplied me with art materials and I remember a note he left for me on one delivery telling me to: “enjoy the paper”. That is Dad's bias…

The rugs are different. No idea when that started but Robin and Jessica have that huge one in their house in Swanage which has been around ages – in fact, there are lots of slide images of it so obviously [he] was really fond of it. 

Albert Hill:

R&B: Your father came from a creative family. Can you tell me a little about the creative environment he was raised in? 

AH: Yes, his father was an interior designer. He did lots of interesting projects but perhaps the most interesting was for his client Edward James for whom he helped interpret Salvador Dali’s designs for sofas, lamps, staircases etc. The famous ‘lips’ sofa, for instance, was made by John’s firm (called Green & Abbott) from Dali’s sketch. John was also friends with Cecil Beaton and other notable artists of the period.

John was also a painter and Rod always talked about John as someone who would loved to have spent more time being an artist rather than being an interior designer. John, and Rod’s mother, Sheila, were creative but also very ‘proper’. It was by no means a wild, bohemian upbringing – it was quite a respectable, ‘society’ upbringing – but there was certainly a strong strand of creativity.

As an aside, his uncle, Heywood, was a noted bookseller (his shop still exists in Mayfair today).

R&B: How did your father approach his book collecting? Did he seek out specific things? 

AH: The library was created purely on happenstance rather than anything more methodical. He would stop at every second-hand bookshop and gallery shop that he could and just buy whatever he liked and whatever was available. He was never much interested in the value of a book or the academic or historical relevance of a book. He was more interested in whether it was an interesting object with good text and images in it. Or whether it spoke to him in other ways, such as a catalogue from a gallery he was fond of. And he loved a bargain – so anything with a ‘reduced’ sticker would attract him. Partly because of a pecunious instinct (he was bought up in a time of rationing) but also because he was always interested in the overlooked and things unloved by the mainstream. 

I think he saw a book about an artist as a secondary object that would serve as a stand-in for the primary object of the artworks. In other words, he would have much preferred the artworks but the books were a second best! Books were also easier to store and look after. He also saw the books as comforting signifiers that there was good art in the world.

R&B: Did he have a particular interest in certain artists, movements or mediums?

AH: Gerald Wilde and Roger Hilton of course – and painterly painters like Mary Potter. But also artists like Stephen Willats – a sort of conceptual artist. Roger Hilton was perhaps his favourite artist. I am not sure if Rod ever met Roger but, some time after Roger’s death, Rod struck up a friendship with Rose Hilton (I am not sure how this came about) and was a frequent visitor to Cornwall to go and stay with her.

I was always struck by the fact that his two favourite artists, Wilde and Hilton, were both alcoholics who lived their lives slightly on the fringes of the art world. They were both hugely respected as artists but, because of their drink problems, often erratic in their behaviour which kept them out of the inner sanctums of the art establishments. Rod admired this lack of respect, seeing it as a sign of a true artist who was more interested in creating great work than making great connections. Rod himself was not nearly as partial to whisky as his two artistic heroes were but I always wonder if there was something in him that would have loved to cut loose a little more like Wilde and Hilton did.

He was most drawn to painting. But he was always open-minded and so never confined himself to particular areas. Modern British was always particularly important to him. He always liked things that he felt had a particular familiarity or relevance to his life. There was a sort of domesticity to his collecting instinct. So he loved abstract painting but not so much the heroic works of the major American abstract expressionists but the more minor British figures like Wilde and Hilton, in particular. He liked the fact that these were artists who had walked the same London streets that he had, had drunk the same brands of tea and visited the same seaside towns on holiday.

He tended towards British (or, at a push, French) but his curiosity also led him to books on Australian, Romanian and lots of other types of art. As well as art books, he loved books on cars. In terms of what he would read, he really like biographies. Particularly of people who he had some sort of connection with. I think he really liked catalogues, rather than survey books or broader monographs, because they had a much more distinct character. Catalogues are more of a snapshot of a time and place and as such often have a more particular personality (the peculiarities of the house styles of individual galleries, for instance) than other books. Their more ephemeral nature also means that they are often more experimental as publications than more ‘serious’ survey books.

The collection also contains quite a lot of stuff related to the YBAs. I think this was because this period, the 90s, was such a vibrant time on the UK art scene and Rod really responded to this energy. I don’t think he ever particularly like the work of the YBAs, funnily enough, but really admired their commitment and energy and their disregard for establishment etiquette. He always liked messiness and the YBAs were not afraid of being messy when it came to creativity.

There is also a book in his collection about the Stockwell Depot (1967 – 79) which is interesting in that Rod had a particular interest in artists in this group with quite a few books on their work. He owned quite a few works by Stockwell Depot artists too. We lived in Stockwell (an area in South London) during this period so Rod would have gone to many of the shows and may have know many of the artists (although I don’t remember any of them in particular!)

R&B: Your father’s own creative practice included rug making, and he made rugs with Tim Nicholson, son of Christopher and EQ Nicholson. Can you tell me a little about how they met and their collaboration? 

AH: I am not sure when he started making rugs! I have memories of him hooking rugs from as far back as I can remember! From my recollection, he would most do the rugs in the evening when his favourite radio shows were on (John Peel and Andy Kershaw – he had a very diverse taste in music) and would sit and listen to music whilst doing the rugs.

Tim told me recently that he always loved Rod’s interpretations of his designs (Tim would usually supply the designs and Rod would make the rug). They were never just a faithful reproduction of a drawing but were a relatively loose take. Tim particularly admired Rod’s instinct for colour. Rug making was a strong tradition in the Nicholson family going back generations and I think that Rod quite liked being associated with that lineage.

He made his rugs in the loft. Most of his rugs were based on artworks that he had seen himself, rather than from books. So works by Rod himself or Moby (his son) or by Wilde. Or, most commonly, by his friend Tim Nicholson.

R&B: Your father also made his own books. Can you tell me a little about those? 

AH: Rod’s scrapbooks are, in the eyes of many who knew him, his most amazing artistic output. Scrapbooks are something of a dying art in our digital era but were much of a common thing for people to do in earlier times. He went through a stage of getting bespoke blank books bound by a craftsperson (the books being something like a metre tall) and he’d put anything in them that caught his eye. This was usually a mixture of things taken from newspapers and magazines, bits and pieces of printed material and photos from everyday life and historic photos that (in later years) he bought from eBay. He would also collect bits of decorative paper (old wallpaper or drawer liners) and use them as backgrounds for his scrapbook and also apply lots of paint. They really need to be seen to be fully appreciated!

R&B: You and your siblings each live creative lives yourselves, do you think your father’s book collecting influenced you in any way?

AH: From my perspective, yes definitely. We didn’t have a TV growing up and my parents were often elsewhere so I spent plenty of time home alone with only his library for company! I was drawn to the magazines (old copies of Oz, old art magazines) and after studying art history at university, I worked in magazines (i-D, Blueprint, Wallpaper, frieze etc). So certainly a direct influence there. I also really liked Private View, the Snowdon book about the 60s art scene. As a young schoolboy stuck on my own in the middle of sleepy Dorset, the images of a vibrant, creative, grown-up London life seemed incredibly appealing and I’ve never quite shaken off those images as something to aspire to.