A Dark HymnHighlights from the Hill Collection
A Dark Hymn: Highlights from the Hill Collection
March 1–April 13, 2024
Hill Art Foundation
A Dark Hymn: Highlights from the Hill Collection celebrates the five-year anniversary of the Hill Art Foundation by examining the Hill Collection through the lens of Valentin Bousch’s 16th-century stained-glass window, The Creation and the Expulsion from Paradise, which is permanently installed at the Hill Art Foundation’s Chelsea building. Unveiled as the centerpiece of the 2022–23 exhibition Spencer Finch: Lux and Lumen, the window has been off view since summer 2023. Now back on display, the masterwork is a testament to the Foundation’s commitment to artistic dialogue between mediums, geographic regions, and time periods. The exhibition places the Bousch window in conversation with works by Robert Bergman, Robert Gober, Mark Grotjahn, Wang Guangle, Caroline Kent, Willem de Kooning, Albert Oehlen, Agnes Martin, Adam Pendleton, Ed Ruscha, Rudolf Stingel, Antonio Susini, Sarah Sze, Joos van Cleve, Liu Wei, and Christopher Wool.
The exhibition spans the four major categories of the Hill Collection: Renaissance and Baroque bronzes, Old Master paintings, paintings and sculptures by Modern masters, and Contemporary art. This eclectic mix offers a glimpse into the process of collecting, and the major acquisitions that have shaped and given direction to the collection as a whole. Additional furniture selected by architect Peter Marino further evokes the private sphere of the home. The exhibition takes its title from Caroline Kent’s A Dark Hymn (2021), a recent acquisition that alludes to themes of language, symbolism, and the sublime that emerge in this grouping and throughout the collection at large.
The Hill Art Foundation was founded in 2019 on the dual pillars of education and access, with a special focus on programming for high schoolers. A Dark Hymn: Highlights from the Hill Collection is the first exhibition to be developed in partnership with the Foundation’s Teen Curators and HAF Educators. Students had the opportunity to research and write object labels, giving real-world application to the arts education they receive through Foundation programs. Educators will also offer a weekly public tour on Saturdays at 3 pm.
Explore Valentin Bousch’s Creation and Expulsion window panel-by-panel below. To learn more, click here.
Agnes Martin
Untitled, 1979
Watercolor and ink on paper
11 × 11 inches (27.9 × 27.9 cm)
Albert Oehlen
BBQ, 2008
Oil on canvas
82 ⅝ × 102 ⅜ inches (210 × 260 cm)
Robert Bergman
Untitled, 1990
Inkjet on Arches Infinity 100% cotton rag, hand coated with an isolation coat of BA/MMA copolymer, and multiple additional hand-applied coats of microcrystalline wax
23 ¾ × 16 inches (60.33 × 40.64 cm)
Antonio Susini
Cristo morto (Dead Christ), cast circa 1590–1615
Gilt bronze
12 ½ × 10 ¾ × 3 inches (31.8 × 27.3 × 7.6 cm)
Robert Bergman
Untitled, 1989
Inkjet on Arches Infinity 100% cotton rag, hand coated with an isolation coat of BA/MMA copolymer, and multiple additional, hand-applied coats of microcrystalline wax
23 ¾ × 16 inches (60.3 × 40.6 cm)
Joos van Cleve
Portrait of a Nobleman with a Beard, n.d.
Oil on oak panel
32 ⅝ × 26 inches (83 × 66 cm)
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (White Butterfly), 2002
Oil on linen
26 × 23 inches (66 × 58.4 cm)
Valentin Bousch
The Creation of the World and the Expulsion
from Paradise, 1533
Green, red, purple, blue and clear glass with silver stain and vitreous enamel
114 × 90 inches (289.6 × 228.6 cm)
Wang Guangle
180620, 2018
Acrylic on canvas
110 ¼ × 70 ⅞ inches (280 × 180 cm)
Ed Ruscha
17th Century, 1988
Acrylic on canvas
56 × 134 inches (142.2 × 340.4 cm)
Robert Gober
Untitled, 1978–2018
Copper, beeswax, forged iron, paper, soil, balsa wood, oil and acrylic paints, and hand-printed silkscreen on paper
24 × 24 × 5 ⅞ inches (61 × 61 × 15 cm)
Caroline Kent
A Dark Hymn, 2021
Acrylic on unstretched canvas
103 ¼ × 81 ¼ inches (262.3 × 206.4 cm)
Liu Wei
Colors No. 13, 2013
Oil on canvas
53 ⅛ × 198 ⅞ inches (135 × 505 cm)
Adam Pendleton
Untitled (A Victim of American Democracy), 2017
Silkscreen ink and spray paint on canvas
84 × 60 inches (213.4 × 152.4 cm)
Willem De Kooning
Clamdigger, 1972
Bronze
59 ½ × 29 × 23 ¾ inches (151.1 × 73.7 × 60.3 cm)
Sarah Sze
Flicker, 2023
Oil paint, acrylic paint, archival paper, acrylic polymers, ink, diabond, aluminum, wood
97 × 120 ½ × 3 inches (246.4 × 306.1 × 7.6 cm)
Christopher Wool
Untitled, 1990
Enamel on paper
52 × 40 inches (132.1 × 101.6 cm)
Christopher Wool
Untitled (You make me), 1997
Enamel on paper
31 ¼ × 23 ¼ inches (79.4 × 59.1 cm)
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled, 2012
Electroformed copper, plated nickel and
gold in 4 parts
Each panel: 47 ¼ × 47 ¼ inches (120 × 120 cm)