Atelier 17

A printmaking workshop, it was founded in 1927 in Paris by Stanley Hayter, an English painter, and then moved to New York in 1940. Atelier 17 was first associated with the New School of Social Research, but in 1945, moved to its own quarters on Eighth Street. Hayter served as Director until his return to Paris in 1950, and members including Karl Schrag and Peter Grippe served in that leadership capacity. Unique to Atelier 17 were Hayter's pioneering techniques with copper and zinc plate engraving, free-line engraving, drilled plates and deep etching. The signature of the workshop was its democratic structure, breaking with the traditional hierarchic French engraving studios by insisting on a cooperative approach to labour and technical discoveries. Hayter, like many associated with his workshop, was a surrealist and attracted artists of that and other abstract styles. American participants included Jackson Pollock, Louise Nevelson, Max Ernst, Andre Masson, Yves Tanguy, Robert Motherwell, Gabor Peterdi, Sue Fuller, Minna Citron, Nahum Tschacbasov, Harriet FeBland, Franz Kline and Mauricio Lasansky. Peterdi and Lasansky have been especially active in carrying on the movement. In 1944, the Museum of Modern Art had an exhibition of Atelier 17 prints. Sources: "The Britannica Encyclopedia of American Art"; AskART Database