Scholarly record

S.W.HAYTER AND THE ATELIER 17 AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO UNDERSTAND THEIR OWN EXISTENCE THROUGH ART

Maria del Rosario Gomez Garcia, S. Garcia Rams

Abstract

The core of this article is that ideas and mastery of artistic techniques are of par im-portance when making a work of art according to Stanley William Hayter. Our question was then, where do ideas come from and how can we bring them to the surface? This study is about how Hayter showed that ideas are directly related to images. Influenced by Jungian ideas of the collective unconscious, he made use of automatic drawing and the technique of engraving, giving a new use to the burin on a copper plate to make them emerge. Currently it is possible to learn this methodology at the Atelier Contrepoint (Paris), which is the same headquarters as the Atelier 17 founded by Hayter in 1928 and which today is directed by Hector Saunier, which is considered its direct heir and the only one at the international level that dominates its methodology. This includes the technique of Simultaneous printing, engraving on soft ground, the application of textures with unu-sual materials (fabrics, ropes, chains ...), plaster print, the open bite, the flowmaster pen and of course the mastery of the burin. Thus, we have traveled to the workshop and have experimented with this system to verify its validity. We have studied Hayter's works and interviewed curators such as Ann Shafer, Gregory P.J. Most, his third wife Desiree Levy Hayter and artists who knew him to find out if Hayter had been inspired by rock art. The answer has been a resounding no. The result has been that the archetypal symbols that appear in Hayter's work and in the engravings made by early homo sapiens are the same due to the existence of a collective unconscious common to all humanity. This sheds new light on the interpretation of Hayter's work because we can now relate it to ancient myths and rites. The scientific community should take into account these legends since they are represented to us after millennia to indicate who we are and how to solve our lives. Hayter was aware of the strong impact that archetypal images have on the viewer since we are resonant beings. He took advantage of this resource to create works such as Tarantelle (1943) and Cinq Personnages (1946). In this analysis we have put them in close relation-ship with the engravings in the rocks of the cave site of Valcamonica (Italy) to demon-strate that at an abysmal distance of time the same mythical symbols appear: schematic anthropomorphic and triangles, as well as the same invocation rituals to the forces be-yond.

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