Hilaire Hiler papers
name: label: Creator
content: Hiler, Hilaire, 1898-1966
label: Names
content: Hiler, Hilaire, 1898-1966
topic: label: Occupation
content: Artists -- France -- Paris
label: Occupation
content: Muralists -- United States
label: Occupation
content: Psychologists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Papers were donated 1967-1968 by Hilaire Hiler.
creator: label: Creator
content: Hiler, Hilaire, 1898-1966
setName: label: See more items in
content: Hilaire Hiler papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The Hilaire Hiler papers measure 3.8 linear feet and date from circa 1898-1969. They illustrate his career through biographical materials, correspondence, writings, personal business records, printed material, and artwork.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Hilaire Hiler (1898-1966) was a mural painter, designer, decorator, and writer who worked mainly in New York and Paris.


Hilaire Hiler was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. Hiler attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Denver, University of Paris, and Golden State University. While living in Paris as an expatriate, he became friends with Henry Miller, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, and Anais Nin. After returning to the United States, he was named art director of the bathhouse building at the San Francisco Aquatic Park (1936-1939) which was a major Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. 

Hiler was best know for his combining of his artistic and psychoanalytical training to create an original perspective on color. Throughout his career Hiler moved towards abstract imagery and by the 1940s his theories on color and abstraction developed into a movement he called "Structuralism". 


Hiler died on January 20, 1966 at the age of sixty-nine.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3.8 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1898-1969
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.hilehila
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sketchbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: This collection consists of six series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1927-1967 (.2 Linear feet: Box 1)

Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1923-1966 (.4 Linear feet: Box 1)

Series 3: Writings, circa 1928-1969 (1.4 Linear feet: Boxes 1-2)

Series 4: Personal Business Records, circa 1898-1965 (1 Linear foot: Boxes 3-4)

Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1916-1966 (.7 Linear feet: Box 3, OV 5-7)

Series 6: Artwork, circa 1954-1965 (.1 Linear feet: Box 3)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: This collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared, by Allessandra Liberati in 2023.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Material lent for microfilming is available on 35mm microfilm reel(s) D302-D302a and 611-614 at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sketchbooks
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Hilaire Hiler papers measure 3.8 linear feet and date from circa 1898-1969. Biographical material includes identification documents, certificates, licenses, membership cards, and a biographical sketch. Correspondents include Faber Birren, Kay Boyle, Marc Connelly, Caresse Crosby, Nancy Cunard, Ben Cunningham (to Hiler's daughter), John Ferren, Al Hirschfeld, Carl Holty, Robert Bruce Inverarity, Gyorgy Kepes, Katharine Kuh, Rico Lebrun, Fernand Leger, Albert W. Levi, Paul Mathews, Henry Miller, Abraham Rattner, Man Ray, Ad Reinhardt, Meyer Schapiro, Charles P. Snow, Edgar Varese, Herbert G. Wells, O'Brien Boldt, Jerome Flax, the Foundation for Integrated Education, Jay H. Herz, Charles Lavell, Jim Moran, Henry Schnakenberg, George Wittenborn, and William Carlos Williams. Also included is correspondence from Hiler's time spent in Paris in the 1920s. In the five Holty letters, Holty comments on aesthetics, color theory, the work of Abraham Rattner, Holty's painting, the history of modern art after World War Two, and his trip across America with Henry Miller and Rattner. 

Writings includes several titled writings by Hiler as well as miscellaneous notes and writings and three notebooks. Also included are manuscripts for Hiler's autobiography and a manuscript for Color and Design: A Structuralist Approach (1955) which includes thirty-seven illustrations and diagrams. Writings by others are also present. Personal business records include multiple card files, materials for a course on color design, three photographs of artworks and a sales receipt, and various bills and receipts. Printed material includes clippings, one hundred nineteen miscellaneous items relating to color and design, published articles by Hiler titled "Costumes and Ideologies," "Some Associative Aspects of Color," "Structuralism," "The Search for a Method of Graphic Expression," and "The Origin and Development of Structural Design", materials related to exhibitions, and miscellaneous printed material. Artwork includes two sketchbooks, and seventeen loose sketches.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The archives also hold three articles by Hiler: "The Aquatic Park Murals", November 5, 1938; "Color in Architecture", and "An Approach to Mural Decoration" as well as a letter from Hiler to Joe Allen, State Supervisor, Federal Art Project, San Francisco and an announcement of a seminar on color directed by Hiler.