THE PROJECT
This descendant-led initiative will revive, preserve, and publicly celebrate the life and legacy of Hector Warren Hill through three connected goals:
• Conserve his surviving paintings, writings, and sketchbooks, and find a permanent home for his archives.
• Build a fully curated retrospective exhibition, tentatively titled "Voices Arise From All Sides and the World Sings," a line from Hill's writings, which will be presented as primary sources.
• Establish a lasting cultural legacy platform.
THE ARTIST
Hector Hill (1934–1963) was a Harlem-born painter, jazz thinker, and social activist whose work bridged Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. He was on the ascent when he died at 29. His daughter is now doing what should have been done decades ago: conserving his paintings, building a retrospective, and making sure the world finally knows his name.
Hill attended the High School of Music & Art, interned under Black cartoonist Alvin C. Hollingsworth, and studied at San Bernardino College and the Brooklyn Museum Art School. He forged a visual language in which jazz, family, and Black liberation were structural principles, pairing geometric discipline with emotional freedom. He also wrote extensively on the interplay of time, music, and painting.
He showed at major New York galleries and at the Fulton Art Fair, co-chaired by Ernest Crichlow and Jacob Lawrence, and holds an entry in the Smithsonian Institution. A carbon copy of his letter thanking Lawrence for feedback survives among his papers.
On July 14, 1963, Hill drowned in Santiago de Cuba while traveling with students and activists challenging the U.S. travel ban. His death made national headlines. Cuba returned his body and renamed a middle school in his honor. Six decades of silence followed.
STATUS OF THE PROJECT
Hill's surviving paintings have been recovered and are in the care of the estate. Years of independent research by Leah Hill, the artist's daughter and the project's executive director, have produced a substantive archive of paintings, writings, exhibition records, press documentation, and biographical materials. An experienced artist/curator has drafted the curatorial vision. The project now seeks financial support to:
Restore and treat vulnerable aging paintings
Secure a venue for the planned exhibition and fund exhibition costs
Support additional public programming
Secure an archivist to preserve and find a home for Hill's records so that they are available to the public