Stanley William Hayter

Stanley William Hayter studied chemistry and geology in England and worked for several years as a research scientist in the Middle East. He painted during his free time and in 1926 moved to Paris to become a full-time artist. A year later, he established Atelier 17, a printmaking workshop where artists such as Max Ernst, Joan Miro, and Pablo Picasso could experiment with different techniques and media. In 1940, Hayter moved his studio to New York, where he attracted not only European painters and printmakers taking refuge from the war, but also young American artists interested in the ideas these exiles brought with them. The Atelier helped to shape the early years of abstract expressionism and became one of the most influential graphic arts workshops of the twentieth century. (Anderson, Pursuit of the Marvelous, 1990)