Polly Knipp Hill: Marking a Life Through Etching

American printmaker Polly Knipp Hill began working as an artist in the 1920s and garnered increased recognition in the decades that followed. Although she initially focused on European architecture, in her mature period her broad body of work grew to encompass poignant, amusing and slightly satirical genre scenes that reflected American culture. This retrospective exhibition of Hill’s life and career was organized iconographically according to the categories into which the artist herself divided her print oeuvre: Paris; America with “street and countryside scenes”; Florida; Arcadia (or reminiscences of her childhood); children’s games; and mountain culture. The groupings also reflect the chronology of her etching career. The exhibition was accompanied by an issue of the museum’s Bulletin, which included an extensive essay on Hill’s work and a checklist of the exhibition, as well as illustrations of many of Hill’s etchings.