Stanley William Hayter biography

Stanley William Hayter was a British artist of great importance in the surrealist art scene. His career spans both painting and engraving, with significant contributions in both fields. During his life, he founded the Atelier 17, an engraving studio in Paris that attracted some of the greatest artists of the time, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Max Ernst and Alberto Giacometti. Born in Hackney, London, in December 1901, Stanley William Hayter moved to Paris in 1926. It was here that he came into contact with the surrealist avant-garde and befriended artists such as Alexander Calder, André Masson and Éluard. In 1927, he opened his engraving studio at 17 rue Campagne-Première, where he experimented with innovative techniques in color engraving.
His activity as a painter developed alongside that of a printmaker, developing a distinctive style characterized by a combination of abstraction and figuration, with intense colors and dynamic linear figures, often inspired by automatic writing.
Towards the late 1930s, Hayter participated in the Spanish Civil War alongside the Spanish Republicans and created several artworks in that context. During World War II, he moved to the United States, where he had the opportunity to meet and work with young artists such as Jackson Pollock. He also met Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and Roberto Matta. His art evolved towards abstraction and influenced the American abstract expressionist movement.
In the 1950s, Hayter returned to France and taught printmaking to a new generation of artists in his Paris studio. He also opened a studio in Provence, in the city of Alba-la-Romaine. In 1958, he represented the United Kingdom at the Venice Biennale and received numerous accolades with solo exhibitions in many museums around the world.
Upon his death in 1988, the entire catalog of his prints was acquired by the British Museum. His works are preserved in important museums such as the Tate, the MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the British Muse.
The biography of Stanley William Hayter reveals an eclectic artistic journey of great significance in the landscape of 20th-century art. Through his work as a painter and printmaker, he contributed to the experimentation of new techniques and influenced many other artists. His ability to combine abstract and figurative elements, along with bold use of color and the dynamism of his compositions, made his works distinctive and memorable. Stanley William Hayter remains a figure of great importance in the history of surrealist art and the abstract expressionist movement, leaving a lasting legacy in the international art scene.