Harry Hilson: Master Artist

Sheafer + King Modern recently acquired an extensive collection by late American artist Harry Hilson (1935-2004). Though Hilson has seemingly slipped through the cracks of art history, research has proven that his career was

undoubtedly successful during his lifetime with showings at the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others. Hilson displayed his work at Purdue University during the 1960s and later kept a residence local to Indianapolis for a short period of his life around the year 2000. 

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In my previous blog post, I introduced you to the life and work of artist Juliet Holland. Juliet Holland’s partner, Cortland Jessup, was the owner and operator of Cortland Jessup galleries in Provincetown, Massachusetts and New York City. Since January, Sheafer + King has continued to work with Holland’s son, local photographer Mark Nickerson, to bring attention to and sell works previously held in Jessup’s private collection. One such artist is the prominent American feminist artist and writer Kate Millett (1934-2017). She remains best known, much to her chagrin, for her 1970 feminist written work Sexual Politics. What began as her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University soon effectively initiated the second wave of the women’s liberation movement, more commonly known as second wave feminism.

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Building literally from dust and earth, sand and clay... my work focuses on the process of transformation - from disintegration and decay to a new form of beauty. The surface reveals an archaeological history of the treatment it has received: rain and earthquake, ancient graffiti, hints of fragmented calligraphy like scars on the skin and soul. Erosion and layering evoking passing time and the continuum of change in nature's infinite progression.

An aspect that has always intrigued me is the mystery that lies within and behind---piercing of layers leading to unexpected discoveries beneath. This combination of deterioration and inflicted markings, construction and destruction, becomes a means of stating both the quality and unity of all things. No endings --- the process of becoming.

Juliet Holland,  New York City

Just as the waves carve the seemingly unchanging shore; mixed media artist Juliet Holland was formed by the tides. As a child, tidepools provided an illusion of stillness, a mirrored surface that allowed her to witness the slow, cyclical rhythm of nature. Read more.