Rediscovering Stanley William Hayter's Oeuvre at Prisme, Paris

A retrospective of British painter-printmaker Stanley William Hayter (1901–1988) was mounted at Prisme (39 avenue de Grenelle, Paris) on a proposal from Galerie T&L, running until June 27, 2020. Curated by Tancrède Hertzog and Léopold Legros, the exhibition aimed to revive interest in a forgotten modernist. Hayter's work evolved from Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism, with recurring motifs like Don Quixote. His 1937 painting 'Paysage anthropophage' (oil on panel, 100 x 200 cm) echoes the violence of the Spanish Civil War, created the same year as Picasso's 'Guernica'. Hayter founded Atelier 17 in 1926 at 17 rue Campagne-Première, Paris, a hub for avant-garde printmaking. He collaborated with Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalí, André Masson, Paul Éluard, and Louis Aragon. During 1940–1950, he lived in New York, where his vibrant compositions influenced American Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock. The exhibition highlighted Hayter's role as a bridge between Surrealism and printmaking, Europe and the United States.