Stanley William Hayter (1901–1988), born in Hackney, London, to painter and sign-maker William Harry Hayter, initially pursued a scientific career, earning a degree in chemistry and geology from King's College London. He worked as a research chemist for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in Abadan, Iran, from 1922 to 1925, painting portraits of colleagues in his spare time; an exhibition of these upon his return sold out, prompting his pivot to art. Arriving in Paris by motorbike in 1926, Hayter briefly attended the Académie Julian before Polish printmaker Józef Hecht taught him copper engraving with the traditional burin technique, equipping him with a press to begin experimental work. In 1927, he founded his pioneering printmaking studio, formalized as Atelier 17 in 1933 at 17 rue Campagne-Première, fostering collaborative innovation among international artists.
Hayter's style evolved from 1930s surrealism—embracing automatism and the unconscious, as seen in *Murder* (1932–33)—to abstract expressionism post-1940, characterized by improvisational line, strong plate tone, and rejection of preparatory drawings. He revolutionized intaglio printing with viscosity printing in the mid-1950s (developed with Kaiko Moti and Krishna Reddy), layering multiple oil-based colors on a single plate via differing viscosities, and simultaneous color techniques using rags, stencils, and viscous inks. Key works include the *Centauresse* series (1944), *Cinq Personnages* (1945)—his first large multi-color print via screens—and civil war fundraisers *Fraternité* and *Solidarité* with Miró, Picasso, and others.
At World War II's outbreak, Hayter relocated Atelier 17 to New York, teaching at the New School for Social Research and influencing Americans like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Mauricio Lasansky amid European exiles such as Picasso, Giacometti, Miró, Calder, and Chagall. Returning to Paris in 1950, he continued until his death, producing over 400 prints and authoring *New Ways of Gravure* (1949) and *About Prints* (1962). Hayter's legacy as 20th-century printmaking's master endures through Atelier 17 (now Atelier Contrepoint), which shaped abstract expressionism and democratized technical experimentation; honors include CBE (1968), Légion d'honneur, and Venice Biennale representation (1958).
