Stanley William Hayter
'Diptych' — Modernist Abstraction, Atelier 17
1967

Name: 'Diptych' — Modernist Abstraction, Atelier 17
Brand: Stanley William Hayter
Price: 1500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Stanley William Hayter, 'Diptych', color engraving and scorper, 1967, edition 50, Black & Moorhead 314. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered '10/50' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, with fresh, vibrant colors on antique-white wove BFK Rives paper; the full sheet with margins (2 1/2 to 3 1/4 inches). Minor skinning and tape residue on the top and bottom sheet edges, verso, otherwise in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 13 7/8 x 19 1/2 inches (146 x 108 mm); sheet size 19 7/8 x 25 3/8 inches (394 x 292 mm). Hayter created this work using engraving and scorper on 2 plates, printed side by side. He used alkali blue, printed intaglio, and a phthalo green with a hard roller on the surface. The proofing was in three states, the first with engraving (a single proof); the second adding further engraving and scorper (a single proof); the third added further engraving and editioned: color trial proofs, 5 artist's proofs, edition of 50. The edition was completed in three printings: 8 in 1967; then Hector Saunier printed numbers 9 through 18 in 1968, and numbers 19 through 50 in 1969. This impression is from the Saunier 1968 printing. Note: the online image cannot accurately convey the vibrancy of the printed alkali blue/phthalo green. ABOUT THE ARTIST Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988) was a British painter and printmaker associated in the 1930s with Surrealism and from 1940 onward with Abstract Expressionism. Regarded as one of the most significant printmakers of the 20th century, Hayter founded the legendary Atelier 17 studio in Paris, now known as Atelier Contrepoint. Among the artists he is credited with influencing are Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, and Marc Chagall. The hallmark of the workshop was its egalitarian structure, breaking sharply with the traditional French engraving studios by insisting on a cooperative approach to labor and technical discoveries. In 1929 Hayter was introduced to Surrealism by Yves Tanguy and André Masson, who, with other Surrealists, worked with Hayter at Atelier 17. The often violent imagery of Hayter’s Surrealist period was stimulated in part by his passionate response to the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Fascism. He organized portfolios of graphic works to raise funds for the Spanish cause, including Solidarité (Paris, 1938), a portfolio of seven prints, one of them by Picasso. Hayter frequently exhibited with the Surrealists during the 1930s but left the movement when Paul Eluard was expelled. Eluard’s poem Facile Proie (1939) was written in response to a set of Hayter’s engravings. Other writers with whom Hayter collaborated in this way included Samuel Beckett and Georges Hugnet. Hayter joined the exile of the Parisian avant-garde in 1939, moving with his second wife, the American sculptor Helen Phillips, to New York. He ran a course entitled ‘Atelier 17’ at the New School for Social Research until 1945 when he opened the workshop independently in Greenwich Village at 41 East 8th Street. Important figures in the emerging New York School associated with Hayter included Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, William Baziotes, and David Smith. By 1946 Atelier 17 was operating independently in expanded and more versatile facilities. Engagements and temporary appointments kept Hayter traveling all over the country. In 1949 he published 'New Ways of Gravure', a book that included a short history of intaglio techniques and a description of the experiments and achievements of Atelier 17. In 1950 Hayter returned to Europe and reestablished Atelier 17 in Paris. Without him, the New York shop began a steady decline until its closing in 1955, whereas in Paris, the studio flourished. Throughout the 1980s, Hayter continued to work with his customary drive and openness, consistently responding to currents of style and technique, eventually gravitating back to painting. In 1987, with the purchase of four hundred prints ranging in date from 1926 through 1960, the British Museum became the largest repository of Hayter’s work. When the artist died in London on May 4, 1988, work was underway on a major retrospective of his prints at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Hayter's graphic work is today included in almost every major 20th-century printmaking museum collection throughout the United States, the UK, and Europe, including The Art Institute of Chicago, Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris), British Museum, Centre Pompidou (Paris), Harvard Art Museum, Hunterian Museum (University of Glasgow), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (Kobe, Japan), Guggenheim Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Museum of Modern Art, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, (Paris), National Gallery of Art, Peggy Guggenheim Museum (Venice), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Royal Academy of Art (London), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Tate Modern (London), Victoria & Albert Museum (London), Whitney Museum of American Art, Yale University Art Gallery.

Creator:

Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988, British)

Creation Year:

1967

Dimensions:

Height: 13.88 in (35.26 cm)Width: 19 in (48.26 cm)

Medium:

Engraving

Movement & Style:

Modern

Period:

1960-1969