Collection: S W Hayter   1901 - 1988 

Hayter was born in Hackney in 1901 to a family of artists, and though he initially worked as a chemist in 1926 he enrolled at the Académie Julian. His chemistry experience proved to be of great use when he met engraver Joseph Hecht there and began to hone his skills as a printmaker. Just a year later, Hayter set up the pioneering graphic workshop Atelier 17.

The Atelier contributed hugely to the resurgence of printmaking across the 20th century. In the ten years before the outbreak of war Hayter began series of prints incorporating innovative techniques and collaborated with international artists. Briefly moving the workshop to New York during the war, in 1950 Hayter re-founded it in Paris where its production boomed over the next thirty years before he died in 1988.