Pati Hill

Pati Hill
Born Patricia Louise Guion Hill
(1921-04-03)April 3, 1921
Ashland, Kentucky, USA
Died September 19, 2014(2014-09-19) (aged 93)
Sens, France
Nationality American
Known for Copy art, writing, modeling

Pati Hill (April 3, 1921 - September 19, 2014) was an American writer and photocopy artist best known for her observational style of prose and her work with the IBM photocopier.[1] While she was not the first artist to experiment with the copier, her work is distinguished by its focus on objects, her emphasis on the accessibility of the medium, and her efforts to unite image and text so that they may "fuse to become something other than either."[1][2][3]

Personal life

Hill was born Patricia Louise Guion Hill in Ashland, Kentucky in 1921.[1] She moved to Charlottesville, Virginia with her mother at age eight.[2] In her late teens, Hill attended George Washington University before moving to New York.[1] Throughout her life, she moved between France and the United States before finally settling in Sens, Yonne, France in the 1990s.[1][3]

On the subject of marriage, Hill was recorded saying, "it was invented by the Devil—in the guise of a man." She was married three times throughout her life. Her first marriage lasted approximately nine months.[4] In the 1940s, Hill married her second husband, Robert Meservey, a skier for the Dartmouth Ski Team, in what was called "a wedding-on-skis." Hill and Meservey skied to the church while Hill carried a bouquet of evergreen branches.[5]

In 1960 after her two previous failed marriages, Hill married French gallerist Paul Bianchini, known for bringing attention to postwar artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg. In 1962, Hill gave birth to a daughter, Paola.[3]

Hill was widowed in 2000 when Bianchini died of cancer.[6]

Modeling career (1940s-1950s)

At age 19, Hill moved to New York where she worked as a model for the John Robert Powers Agency.[2][7] In the late 1940s, Hill moved to Paris to continue her modeling career, becoming "a top-flight model" for Edward Molyneux and other designers.[1][8] There, she modeled what she recalled was "the first collection of American clothes" in Paris.[2] She modeled throughout her twenties and occasionally modeled for photographer and close friend Diane Arbus before withdrawing from fashion to retire in the French countryside.[3]

Writing career (1950s–1960s)

While living in a small house in France, Hill wrote a memoir, The Pit and the Century Plant, and her first novel, The Nine Mile Circle.[1][3]

The Pit and the Century Plant, an account of her experience in the French countryside, was praised for its evocative reflections and "vivid appreciation" of life among the French people. In this memoir, Hill recounts her experiences with "the hardships of country living," forming a relationship with her neighbor across the road, and her dealings with nature.[1][9]

The Nine Mile Circle received both positive and mixed reviews, celebrated for its "charming style" but criticized for its familiar content.[1][8][10] One reviewer of the Post-Dispatch praised The Nine Mile Circle for its intimate look into the lives of its characters, saying, "You finish The Nine Mile Circle feeling almost guilty at having witnessed so much that is private and personal in the lives of these people" and further calling her style "fresh and intriguing" while offering a swift criticism of the novel's lack of form.[11] Several reviewers favorably compared Hill to William Faulkner for her depth of insight into her characters.[11][12] Harper's Bazaar published an excerpt of The Nine Mile Circle entitled "Jetty's Black Rage" in their April 1956 issue.[5]

While modeling in New York in the 1940s, she began writing for Mademoiselle and Seventeen.[4] In Paris, Hill contributed six short stories and an essay entitled "Cats" to The Paris Review in addition to an interview with Truman Capote.[3][13] Her final contribution was published in Spring 1981.[13]

Copy art (1970s–2010s)

Hill withdrew from her writing career in 1962 and began collecting informational art and objects as a housekeeper, which would become the subjects of her earliest works on the photocopier.[14] She cited two experiences as her inspiration for experimenting with the photocopier.[3] In one of her accounts, Hill accidentally copied her thumb while attempting to copy documents and was introduced to the potential of the copier.[2] In another explanation, she maintained that she was cleaning out a drawer when she decided that she wanted to remember some of its contents.[15]

Hill possessed "a longtime curiosity about the details of objects.",[3] a respect she developed during the Great Depression, when, she recalled, "anything anybody had was it because there wasn't going to be another."[2] Hill began to experiment with the photocopier in 1973 by asking an attendant at a copy shop to scan various items for her.[2][3] Later, she spent a weekend locked in IBM's New York offices to produce copies. About this, she said, "I got a lot of copies made and walked out on Monday morning when everyone came in."[15]

In 1975, Hill published Slave Days, a book of 29 poems paired with photocopies of small household objects.

In 1976, Hill published another novel, Impossible Dreams, illustrated by photocopies of 48 photographs taken by photographers such as Robert Doisneau and Ralph Gibson.[3] Impossible Dreams is the product of Hill's efforts to create what she called a "stopped movie." Hill's style of prose in this novel prompted one reviewer to call her writing "honest as kitchen knives but wielded in some dark alley."[16]

In 1977 on a flight from Paris to New York, Hill encountered designer Charles Eames and showed him some of the work she made on the copier. He formally introduced her to IBM, who presented Hill with an IBM Copier II on loan for two and a half years.[15] With the copier installed in her home in Stonington, Connecticut, Hill experimented with techniques such as moving an object over the platen of the copier as a copy was being made, occasionally using brightly colored copier paper, and spooning extra quantities of toner into the machine.[3][15] The IBM Copier II created many of the features which distinguished Hill's work by allowing for richer blacks and producing "flaws" in the print where the toner did not adhere to the paper.[3] Hill embraced these flaws, stating, "The production of accidents is perhaps the feature of the copier which most endears it to the artist."[17]

Hill's work with the photocopier led her to treat the process of photocopying as a conversation with the photocopier.[3] She presented the machine with a degree of autonomy, explaining,

This stocky, unrevealing box stands 3 ft. high without stockings or feet and lights up like a Xmas tree no matter what I show it.

It repeats my words perfectly as many times as I ask it to, but when I show it a hair curler it hands me back a space ship, and when I show it the inside of a straw hat it describes the eerie joys of a descent into a volcano.[7]

Hill also used the copier to negotiate the relationship between words and images. She strove to create "work in which the two elements fuse to become something other than either."[2] This effort is evident in A Swan: An Opera in Nine Chapters which creates a story through the combination of text and prints of a dead swan.[14] Her fascination with words and images further contributed to her efforts to create a universal symbol language, which was taught briefly to students of a Connecticut elementary school.[18]

Hill did not view her prints as representations nor reproductions of physical objects, but she instead considered her prints as objects in and of themselves.[2] On photocopies, Hill said, "A photocopy seems to me much more truthful to detail than a photograph."[15] She never enlarged nor shrank the scale of the objects she copied.[3]

In the 1980s, Hill committed to one of her greatest ambitions: photocopying the Palace of Versailles.[1] She cited four reasons for this venture: 1) she considered Versailles to be simultaneously "self-centered" and "public-spirited"; 2) it shared connections between the United States and France, and she considered herself to be a citizen of both countries; 3) she wanted to "do something big"; 4) she wanted to see what "a modern device would make of something old."[15] Additionally, she explained, "I conceived the idea of photocopying the château of Versailles because, among other reasons, it is so well known through painting and photography. It gives me a dramatic opportunity to show the difference between those disciplines and that of copying. The great variety of subject matter would allow full range to the copier's artistic capacity within a single framework."[19] She copied a bellpull, cobblestones, and a pear tree, roots and live worms included, all of which were pulled from Versailles.[3][19] Hill intended to have several exhibitions of her Versailles work, including shows titled Weeds, Worms, Water and Popsicle Sticks, Stone and Iron, Walls and Words, and Lace and Glass. Nevertheless, Hill insisted, "I am not interested in Copy Art per se but rather in what I can do with a copier."[19]

Publications

Memoirs

Novels

[3]

Poetry

Artist's books

[2]

Books on art

[2]

Notable works

Notable exhibitions

Solo

[2]

Group

Collections

[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Yardly, William (2014-09-23). "Pati Hill, Author Turned Artist of the Photocopier, Dies at 93". The New York Times (The New York Times Company).
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Hartz, Jill (2000). Pati Hill: Wall Papers (PDF). Bayly Art Museum.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Torchia, Richard (2014-12-18). "Parti Hill (1921–2014)". Artforum (New York: Artforum International Magazine).
  4. 1 2 Marder, Irving (1975-03-28). "Portrait of the Artist As a Family of Three". International Herald Tribune (PDF) (Paris). p. 5.
  5. 1 2 "The Editor's Guest Book". Harper's Bazaar (PDF): 91. 1956.
  6. ↑ "OBITUARY : Paul Bianchini, 72, Pop Art Dealer, Dies". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). 2000-09-12.
  7. 1 2 3 McCray, Marilyn (1979). Electroworks (PDF). International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House. ISBN 0-935398-01-5.
  8. 1 2 Eichelberger, Clayton (1957-08-25). "Outstanding Trio For Style, Polish". Dallas Times Herald (PDF).
  9. 1 2 Forbes, Harriet (1955-09-15). "Hill, Pati. The Pit and the Century Plant". The New Yorker (PDF).
  10. ↑ Deal, Borden (1957). "In the Heart of Dixie". The New York Times (PDF) (The New York Times Company).
  11. 1 2 3 Schott, Webster (1957-07-21). "Impressive Debut: First Novel About Rural South". Post-Dispatch (PDF) (St. Louis).
  12. ↑ Poore, Charles (1957-07-09). "Books of The Times". The New York Times (PDF). p. L27.
  13. 1 2 Piepenbring, Dan (2014-09-24). "Pati Hill, 1921–2014". The Paris Review (The Paris Review).
  14. 1 2 McGonigle, Thomas (1981). "Ezra Pound Knows and Why Pati Hill". Arts Magazine (PDF) 55: 128–129.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bailey, Anthony (1980-08-04). "Copies" (PDF). The New Yorker.
  16. ↑ Hershman, Marcie (1976-09-26). "Aim is high, on target". The Boston Sunday Globe (PDF).
  17. ↑ Popper, Frank (1983). "Pati Hill". Electra (PDF). p. 356.
  18. 1 2 Hill, Pati (1994). La Disparition De L'Alphabet (PDF). Paul Bianchini Galerie Toner.
  19. 1 2 3 Rigal, Christian (1982). "Photocopy Versailles? Why not!". The Paris Free Voice.
  20. ↑ "Pati Hill". Arts Magazine (PDF) 51: 31. 1976.
  21. ↑ Burnside, Madeleine (1976). "Pati Hill, Photocopied Garments". ART News (PDF) 75: 140–141.
  22. ↑ Bianchini, Paul (1993). Le Dernier Souper (PDF). Paul Bianchini Galerie Toner.
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