Kenneth Zammit Tabona writes:
Many paintings throughout history have depicted "the artist and his model", an all-time favourite in which the oftentimes intimate relationship between the two is celebrated forever more. Not as common a subject is "the artist and his frame". My old friend and mentor Giuseppe Arcidiacono once told me that "Il-gwarniċ il-pastaż tal-pittura għaliex jerfa' kollox" an unliteral translation of which is that "a frame makes or breaks a painting". This is so true.
My relationship with John Hili goes back to a very momentous year in my life; 2002, during which I was preparing for my first solo exhibition in seven years at the Chamber of Commerce. That year, just weeks before the exhibition, I decided to leave the bank where I had worked for almost 30 years and to paddle my own canoe; or so I thought. Very few of us artists can have an exhibition of over 40 works without a very understanding framer who is in for the risk as much as the artist. John was one such man. Not only did he frame all the works spectacularly but delivered them to the Chamber and took over the hanging of them too. I could not believe my luck.
That established a working relationship which has worked brilliantly for the past five years. In a canoe made for two I felt I could do anything!
My friend John died unexpectedly a few days ago. I will not be meeting him week in week out to exchange recipes for his rabbit stew and steamed cipollazza with my English fish pie or paella nor will we discuss the latest films. I will not be phoning him out of the blue for a quick job or to collect or deliver paintings. I will not be sending the representatives of the umpteen charities that ask me to donate paintings to him to frame, knowing that, invariably, he would not charge them either. Such a gentleman is hard to find. A man who had an inbuilt mathematical computer implanted in his brain that could unravel the most complicated numerical problems and instinctively cut a mount to the nearest nano-millimetre without measuring! I was invariably speechless!
A great character; John was an artists' framer who instinctively understood that a frame existed to enhance the painting and not outshine it. John's no nonsense approach endeared him to all of us artists and collectors, yet, his humility was paired off with a keen unerring eye for good paintings, an innate wisdom nurtured by years and years of working with artists and collectors. With his son Leonard at hand, the workshop was a sort of club for us all where we met and discussed everything and anything under the sun in the most informal of atmospheres.
I will miss him terribly.
To John's wife Rose and his children Leonard, Andrè and Denise my deep and very sincere condolences.