Stanley William Hayter

Colour in motion

The exhibition Colour in Motion immerses visitors in the heart of the expressive, innovative, and dynamic world of the English painter and engraver Stanley William Hayter.

Stanley William Hayter, who was born in London in 1901 and died in Paris in 1988, is internationally acknowledged as a leading theoretician and experimenter in the field of painting and engraving.

Having moved to Paris in 1926, he opened his famous Atelier 17, which, over the years, became a veritable hub for avant-garde art, and was frequented by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, and Alberto Giacometti.

A member of the surrealist group between 1933 and 1938, Hayter exhibited his works alongside those of Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, Joan Miró, René Magritte, and Yves Tanguy. Fascinated by André Masson’s visions, his pictorial technique developed into automatism, which he made famous with astonishing creative force. He gradually shifted away from figuration, and the brushstrokes were intertwined like strands, characterised by bright colours and powerful lines. His art lay at the crossroads between surrealism and abstraction.