Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions will offer a significant collection of works by first generation British Surrealist Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988), one of the greatest and most influential figures of 20th-century printmaking. The sale, Stanley William Hayter: Painter Printmaker, on Wednesday, October 29, 2014, will be one of the largest and most extensive collections of his work to date, exploring the diverse and experimental career of the innovator and artistic catalyst who nurtured the next generation of artists in their rise to fame.

Alexander Hayter, International Head of Modern & Contemporary Art said; “This auction comes at a propitious time for collectors as a growing demand in the market for Hayter’s work has seen him steadily gain popularity on an international scale.”

Although often overlooked, Hayter was technically the most complex printmaker of the 20th century and developed ground-breaking techniques at his celebrated studio, Atelier 17, a powerhouse of innovatory colour printing and the centre of avant-garde printmaking.

Founded in Paris, 1927, Hayter’s studio attracted some of the greatest contemporary art figures including Picasso, Miró, Calder, Ernst and Giacometti, who all took residency there to work alongside him. After moving to New York in 1940, and re-establishing Atelier 17, Hayter acted as a conduit between young American artists and the European Giants amassing a significant following. In the company of a diverse network of peers, that included the abstract expressionists Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko and Motherwell, Hayter used his technical genius to innovate and inspire. His own pursuit of automatic drawing has been seen as one of the key influences on Jackson Pollock's mature style.

His greatest technical achievement is arguably viscosity printing, a radical technique that uses inks of varying viscosity, applied with both soft and hard rollers, to produce complex plates that print colours simultaneously.                                                                                                                                                           

Together with an impressive array of oil paintings, drawings and prints the sale will also include one of the two collaborative portfolios produced at Atelier 17, Paris, in the late 30s to help raise money for Spanish Republican Children’s Trust. The intricate work, called Fraternité, includes prints by Hayter, Miró and Kandinsky.

The sale will be held at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ London saleroom on Wednesday 29th October 2014.