The Heckscher Museum of Art’s collection spans 500 years with particular emphasis on art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. American landscape painting and work by Long Island artists, past and present, are particular strengths, as is American and European modernism.
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Hayter was among the most significant printmakers of the 20th century. In 1927, he established a celebrated print studio, Atelier 17, in Paris, which was known for its collaborative working environment and experimental approach. The Atelier artists shared techniques and methods, exploring etching, drypoint, and engraving, and developing new processes. Hayter was particularly influenced by the automatism of the Surrealists, the idea that the artist’s unconscious mind guides the development of a composition without the intrusion of conscious thought or intention. At the outbreak of WWII, Hayter moved the Atelier to New York, where his studio became central to a community of European émigrés, and fostered an exchange of ideas with the American artists who developed Abstract Expressionism, most notably Jackson Pollock. Tropic of Cancer is an important work in the artist’s oeuvre, notable for its unusual scale and for the range of techniques used in its creation.