Casey Kaplan
Caroline Kent’s A Dark Hymn (2021) is included in A Dark Hymn: Highlights from the Hill Collection, on view at the Hill Art Foundation, New York, through April 13, 2024.
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.
Visit the Hill Art Foundation website for further information.