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Bevis Hillier | |
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| Born | 28 March 1940 Redhill, Surrey, England |
| Alma mater | Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Art historian, author and journalist |
| Relatives | Jack Hillier (father) |
Bevis Hillier (born 28 March 1940) is an English art historian, author and journalist. He has written on Art Deco, and also a biography of Sir John Betjeman.
Hillier was born in Redhill, Surrey, where the family lived at 27, Whitepost Hill. [1] His father was Jack Hillier, an authority and author on Japanese art; his mother, Mary Louise (née Palmer), was an authority on wax dolls and automata. [2] Hillier was educated at Reigate Grammar School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Gladstone Memorial Prize for History. He was employed as a journalist on The Times from 1963 (on the editorial staff until 1968; edited The Connoisseur magazine (1972-76); antiques correspondent of The Times from 1970 to 1984; deputy literary editor from 1981 to 1984). From 1984 to 1988, he was an associate editor of the Los Angeles Times . [3] He has since been a reviewer for The Spectator .
In 1968 Hillier's book Art Deco of the 20s and 30s was published by Studio Vista. This was the first major work on a hitherto neglected genre of art that had previously been referred to as Art Moderne (the term Art Moderne has since come to be used to refer to the later streamlined style of Art Deco in the 1930s). Hillier's use of the term Art Deco became definitive. In 1971 Hillier curated a major Art Deco show at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which helped to increase popular awareness of this style.
In 1969 Studio Vista published Hillier's Cartoons and Caricatures, a study of caricature from the 13th century to the late 20th. Hillier has also written books on ceramics and posters, as well as The Style of the Century (1983), a review of the various styles of art in the 20th century, from Art Nouveau through psychedelia and pop art to punk.
Hillier's major work, however, is the authorised biography of Sir John Betjeman. It took Hillier 28 years to research and write, and was published by John Murray in three volumes (1988, 2002 and 2004). A one-volume abridgement was published in 2006 for Betjeman's centenary.
From the age of 60, Hillier has resided at the almshouse of the Hospital of St Cross in Winchester, Hampshire, having an appreciation for the architecture reminiscent of his time at Oxford. [4]
In August 2006 a rival biography of Betjeman was published by A. N. Wilson. It was later discovered to contain a hoax letter, purportedly by Betjeman, but actually containing an acrostic insulting Wilson. The letter had been sent to Wilson by "Eve de Harben", an anagram of "Ever been had?", and the first letters of each sentence, beginning with the second sentence, spelled out the message "A. N. Wilson is a shit." Hillier was an immediate suspect for the literary forgery: the Sunday Times article revealing the hoax was accompanied by a prominent picture of Hillier and noted that an envelope containing a letter supposedly from de Harben to the newspaper had been bought in Winchester, his home town. [5] Hillier initially denied responsibility, but soon admitted that he had written the letter. He explained that he had been angered by Wilson's negative review of the second volume of his biography of Betjeman, and by pre-publication publicity for Wilson's own biography. [6]
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Art Deco, short for the French Arts décoratifs, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in Paris in the 1910s, and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s to early 1930s. Through styling and design of the exterior and interior of anything from large structures to small objects, including how people look, Art Deco has influenced bridges, buildings, ships, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects including radios and vacuum cleaners.
Sir John Betjeman, was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, helping to save St Pancras railway station from demolition. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1968.
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Andrew Norman Wilson is an English writer and newspaper columnist known for his critical biographies, novels and works of popular history. He is an occasional columnist for the Daily Mail and a former columnist for the London Evening Standard. He has been an occasional contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, The Spectator and The Observer.
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Jean Lambert-Rucki (1888–1967) was a Polish avant-garde artist, sculptor, and graphic artist. He was best known for his participation in the Cubist, Surrealist and Art Deco movements. He exhibited at the 1913 Salon d'Automne in Paris; from 1919 was represented by both Léonce Rosenberg at the Galerie de l'Effort Moderne and the art dealer Paul Guillaume. In March 1920, Lambert-Rucki exhibited at the second exhibition of la Section d'Or, Galerie de La Boétie, Paris, and participated in the first exhibition of l'Union des Artistes Modernes, where he continued to show his works. He worked with diverse styles and media, at times he was influenced by the tribal art of Africa. Lambert-Rucki also became well known for his Cubist cityscapes.
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Theyre Lee-Elliott was an English artist who created notable Art Deco logos such as the Speedbird and painted the ballet and religious art.
Art Deco of the 20s and 30s is an art history book by English historian Bevis Hillier. It was initially published in 1968 by Studio Vista. The author discusses how the style of cubism, expressionism, Ancient Egyptian art, Mayan art, and so on influenced Art Deco, and how Art Deco itself changed the style of disciplines as various as modern architecture, jewelry, ceramics, tableware, metalwork, glass, textiles, and many others.
Studio Vista was a British publishing company founded in 1961 that specialised in leisure and design topics. In the 1960s, the firm published works by a number of authors who went on to be noted designers.
The Art Deco style, which originated in France just before World War I, had an important impact on architecture and design in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The most notable examples are the skyscrapers of New York City, including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center. It combined modern aesthetics, fine craftsmanship, and expensive materials, and became the symbol of luxury and modernity. While rarely used in residences, it was frequently used for office buildings, government buildings, train stations, movie theaters, diners and department stores. It also was frequently used in furniture, and in the design of automobiles, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as toasters and radio sets.
La Maison Cubiste, also called Projet d'hôtel, was an architectural installation in the Art Décoratif section of the 1912 Paris Salon d'Automne which presented a Cubist vision of architecture and design. Critics and collectors present at the exhibition were confronted for the first time with the prospect of a Cubist architecture.
Leonora Payne Ison (1904–1996) was a British architectural draughtsperson and artist. She depicted the architectural history of England from antiquity to the 20th century, working in collaboration with her husband Walter Ison, the poet John Betjeman and others.
