The English painter and printmaker, S.W. Hayter (1901 in London - 1988 in Paris) is known worldwide as the founder of the experimental print workshop, Atelier 17, frequented by many of the great artists of the 20th century including Picasso, Miro, Dali, Arp, Calder, Chagall etc.

Hayter was a member of the surrealist group from 1933 to 1938 and he regularly exhibited alongside Dali, Duchamp, Ernst, Chirico, notably at Breton's Gravida Gallery; in the 1940s he was considered one of the main initiators of the Abstract Expressionist movement.

This publication will be the first to follow the development of Hayter's paintings with over 100 reproductions and an emphasis on the 1930s surrealist period and 1940s abstract expressionism.