Albatross 1973

Stanley William Hayter made this colour etching, Albatross, and you can see how he’s built up the image through layers of etched marks and colours, a real testament to the process of printmaking. There’s a great sense of movement here, like you’re caught in a vortex of colour. The texture is smooth, the inks laid down evenly, but the overlaid patterns and lines add a real sense of depth. Look at how the diagonal bands of colour shift from cool blues and greens to intense purples, creating a kind of optical vibration. Then there are these delicate, looping lines in red, floating on top, like a ghostly presence. Hayter was part of the Surrealist movement, and this piece reminds me of Joan Miró’s playful, abstract language. Both artists embrace chance and experimentation, letting the materials and the process guide their hand. Ultimately, it’s this embrace of ambiguity and the unexpected that makes art so exciting.