Hilaire Hiler was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was raised in Providence, Rhode Island. Hiler took art classes as a child at the Rhode Island School of Design. When he was older, Hiler studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, and William Server's studio. He also studied at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Denver, Golden State University, and National College in Ontario, Canada. He continued on to France, studying at the University of Paris in 1919. Hiler lived in Paris from 1919-1934, supporting himself as a jazz musician and a piano player for The Jockey Club.
Hiler moved back to America in 1934, settling in San Francisco. He was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to paint murals in the Aquatic Park Bath House, which is now the National Maritime Museum. During this period he continued working in a semi-abstract, primitive style and concentrated his attentions on Native American subject matter and themes.
In the early 1940's, he founded Fremont College in Los Angeles and in 1944, he moved the college to Santa Fe (now named Hiler College). He continued to move towards abstraction with a strong interest in color theory. He established a movement he referred to as "Structuralism" and defined it as a "scientific analysis of color-form." In 1959, a book was published on the subject by George Waldemar, " Hilaire Hiler and Structuralism: New Conception of Form-color."
Exhibited: Salon des Independents; Salon d'Automne, Paris; Salons of Am., 1934; CAA traveling exh., 1934; GGE, 1939; Am. Artists European traveling exh., 1947; Leicester Gal., London, 1926-32; Ecole de Paris, 1929; AIC, 1945-47; New Mexico traveling exh., 1949; Japanese exh. Of American Painters, 1949-50; Pittsburgh, PA, 1926; solos: New Gal., 1926; Dover Gal., London, 1926; Ferargil Gal., 1928; New Art Circle, 1930.Georges Petit Gal., Paris, 1932; Mellon Gal., Phila., PA, 1932; Milwaukee AI (with Carl Holty), 1937; Veteran's Memorial Museum., San Francisco, 1937; City of Paris Gal., San Francisco, 1938; California Institute Tech., 1942; Argent Gal., 1942; Perls Gal., Hollywood, 1942; Santa Barbara Mus. Art, 1944; Museum of New Mexico, 1945, 1946; Carlebach Gal., 1947; Georg Jenson, 1948; Vesuvio Gal., San Francisco, 1949; Newark AI, 1950; L'Abbaye, Paris, 1950; Mansard Gal., London, 1955; Societe de Arquitectos Mexicanos, Casa del Arquitecto, Mexico City, 1956; Galerie de l'Institut, Paris, 1957; Collectors' Gal., NY, 1958; Provincetown Art Festival, 1958; Carnegie Intl., 1959; David Bromberg Gal., 1961; Ritchie Hendrick's Gal., Dublin, 1963.
Works Held: Musee du Luxembourg; CPLH; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Museum of New Mexico; MMA; Veteran's Memorial Museum, San Francisco; LACMA; Museum of Living Art, New York. Book in "Vault of Significant Literature," Harvard University murals, Aquatic Park Casino, San Francisco.
Further Reading: Artists in California, 1786-1940, Edan Milton Hughes, Hughes Publishing, San Francisco, 1986.; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. II. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds., Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.
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