Downward 1987 - 1988

Curator: Looking at "Downward" by Stanley William Hayter, an etching completed between 1987 and 1988. It's a captivating display of abstract expressionism, quite typical of Hayter's later print work. Editor: The colours are arresting! The swirling blues, purples and greens are unsettling against those strong, dark, pink lines, and together these lend it an atmospheric, slightly melancholic quality. It’s very dreamlike. Curator: It’s all in the execution, truly. Hayter, throughout his career, deeply examined the engraving processes—the use of different tools, varying the depth of the cuts, exploring chemical patinas and the viscosity of inks… His atelier, Atelier 17, was pivotal for artists experimenting with the medium. Editor: Absolutely. Looking at it, I can't help but consider how these etched lines evoke ideas about directionality and descent – how our contemporary notions of success often demand constant upward mobility, while forces, economic, social, and emotional, can leave us feeling cast down. It seems pertinent when looking back at the social dynamics of the late '80s. Curator: A compelling observation. Given Hayter's history – from scientific draftsman to embracing Surrealism with its interest in automatism and the unconscious—these floating forms might have tapped into a deeper collective anxiety that arose with globalization and mass media. He really explored these concepts across media throughout his working life. Editor: It is difficult to say but for sure this visual language touches upon larger power structures… These looping shapes remind us that these are never isolated phenomena but exist within networks of relationships—systems impacting people daily! Curator: Yes! Considering the means of production and distribution helps anchor the artistic intent within tangible experience; by studying processes themselves rather than intent only we come away understanding that material expression always informs conceptual possibility, rather than one necessarily preceding or superseding the other! Editor: That interplay, it's where this piece really thrives. Pushing us to confront these complexities—the tensions between materiality and meaning making, between action and outcome. A print made late in the artist's life but yet somehow speaking so very clearly across the decades.