Hayter was born in Hackney, London in 1901. Between 1918 and 1921 he read Chemistry and
Geology at Kings College in London. In 1926 he moved to Paris and opened a printmaking
workshop. Hayter’s first one-man show opened the following year at the Galerie Sacre du
Printemps. In 1940 he moved to New York and over the next decade opened a studio in New York and Paris - known as Atelier 17. The New York studio was attended by Rothko, De Kooning and Jackson Pollock whilst Picasso, Miro, Chagall and Dali all frequented his printmaking studio in Paris.
Hayter learned the art of engraving from Joseph Hecht whilst in Paris and the free-form, unconscious flow of line in his paintings, drawings and prints was influenced by the ideas of the Surrealists, with whom he exhibited during the 1930’s.
The stirrings of Fascism in Europe and the Civil War in Spain account for the recurring signs of terror and aggression that run through his earlier work. Later his style became progressively more abstract and calm.
His first major exhibition ‘Hayter and Studio 17’, was mounted at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1944. In 1957 a retrospective exhibition of Hayter’s work opened at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London.
He was awarded an OBE in 1959 and a CBE in 1968.