Atelier 17 Project

The Atelier 17 Project, Inc. is a non-profit organization that encourages new research about the history of Atelier 17 on the occasion of this avant-garde printmaking workshop’s centennial in 2027. 

Atelier 17 was a revolutionary institution that shaped the direction of modernism and the graphic arts across its 61-year history between 1927 and 1988 with studio locations in Paris and New York City. Atelier 17 was a vital center of intellectual and artistic exchange for Surrealist artists in interwar Paris and for the exploration of abstraction and other modernist modes after World War II. Thousands of artists from a diverse international community were drawn to working at Atelier 17 because its founder, Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988), and studio members conceived of printmaking in revolutionary ways. For them, printmaking was an experiment: not simply a tool for reproducing other artworks—such as paintings or drawings—or making multiple copies of an image. 

The Atelier 17 Project, Inc. has three goals:

1. Create awareness of Atelier 17’s centennial in 2027. 
2. Encourage the international arts community—including museums, universities, studio art programs, artists and their estates or foundations, and commercial galleries—to think expansively about Atelier 17 and to initiate centennial projects such as exhibitions, publications, or public programming.
3. Publicize the constellation of centennial activities that will unfold around the world during 2027 with the goal of educating new audiences about topics including Atelier 17’s international impact, the global composition of its members, and its ongoing relevance to contemporary artists.

The upcoming centennial of Atelier 17’s founding marks an opportune moment to reflect upon Atelier 17’s significance. The studio not only shaped the trajectory of twentieth-century printmaking, it also impacted the development of modernism and intersected with the careers of so many artists. Even for specialists familiar with the workshop’s history, the 2027 centennial projects should offer fresh perspectives about Atelier 17 and spotlight artists outside of those who have been central to histories of the studio (historically, a handful of white male artists associated with surrealism and abstract expressionism, such as Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Jackson Pollock, and Robert Motherwell). 2027’s centennial celebrations should create deeper public appreciation for Atelier 17 as an important, international center of modernist activity during the twentieth century.