Greeting Card For New Year 1965-66

Stanley William Hayter

Atelier 17 founder Stanley William Hayter began doing his annual Greeting cards in 1930-31, often featuring techniques he was currently experimenting with - a peek into the future. Early cards were done in editions of 50, later in editions of 100. He did his last one in 1981-82 in a single impression. These original prints were pencil signed and dated. Given to colleagues, collectors, dealers, etc as a holiday gift many have personal annotations.

In the mid-sixties Hayter began experimenting with more optical imagery. Cataloguer Peter Black comments on this work on page 44 of 'The Prints of Stanley William Hayter':..."the rhythmic linear prints of 1965 onwards focus on structure rather than substance, and convey an impression of the subject continuing through time rather than frozen for an instant. They consist, usually, of two interfering series of curving lines, tracing the patterns of surface waves..."

Hayter puts a universal question of growth into a visual possibility. His colors got brighter and more electric, even fluorescent and moved in crisscrossing, rhythmic movement. This image, done for 1965-66, used two color linoleum blocks, printed and transferred to another plate and printed offset in three colors in an edition of 100 impressions.