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Stanley William Hayter
'Feu sous L'eau' (Fire Under Water) —Mid-century Modernism, Atelier 17
1955

Name: 'Feu sous L'eau' (Fire Under Water) —Mid-century Modernism, Atelier 17
Brand: Stanley William Hayter
Price: 1800 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Stanley William Hayter, 'Feu sous L'eau (Fire Under Water)', color engraving, soft-ground etching and scorper with yellow silkscreen, 1955, edition 50 plus 10 artist proofs, Black & Moorhead 221. Signed, titled 'Fire Under Water', dated and annotated 'Essai' in pencil. Dedicated in the artist’s hand 'for Adja & Dove WH Bill 17–5–55' in the top margin. A superb, richly inked impression with fresh colors, on heavy, cream wove paper; wide margins (2 1/2 to 3 7/8 inches), in excellent condition. One of 10 artist’s proofs. Image size 10 3/16 x 7 inches; sheet size 18 1/8 x 12 1/4 inches. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THIS WORK In 1950 Hayter returned to Paris and reopened Atelier 17. Works such as 'Fire Under Water' reveal newfound influences, such as that of the Ardèche area of southern France, where he acquired a house in 1951 and frequently visited. Hayter took great interest in the flowing Escoutay River, an experience that parallels the artist and co-director of Atelier 17 Krishna Reddy’s interest in depicting water. While some forms in this print evoke the natural world, the palette of contrasting tones of purple, yellow, black, and white reflects Hayter’s belief in using color intuitively to express emotions and evoke feelings. The sharp white relief lines from the paper and the textural effects realized through soft-ground etching operate in tandem with the sweeping curves and bold colors to give the composition a sense of vitality and dynamism. —edited from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Published by 'La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine', Paris. Impressions of this work are in the following collections: British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art. 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 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 dating 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 held in every significant 20th-century printmaking museum collection in the United States, the UK, and Europe, including the British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Guggenheim Museum, Harvard Art Museum, High Museum of Art, Hunterian Museum (University of Glasgow), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Houston, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, National Galleries of Scotland, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Royal Academy of Arts (London), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Tate Modern (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Whitney Museum of American Art, and Yale University Art Gallery.

Creator:

Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988, British)

Creation Year:

1955

Dimensions:

Height: 10.19 in (25.89 cm)Width: 7 in (17.78 cm)

Medium:

Engraving,Etching

Movement & Style:

Abstract Expressionist

Period:

1950-1959