Today is National Shakespeare Day – a celebration of The Bard of Avon and his indelible, unmatched contributions to culture. The great English playwright died on 23 April, 1616, aged 52, and although his exact date of birth is unknown, his birthday is also celebrated on 23 April. Shakespeare’s vivid themes and characters have inspired artists since the 17th century – including the late English painter and printmaker, Stanley William Hayter.

Hayter dabbled in Surrealism, but by the 1940s had turned towards an Abstract Expressionist language, and founded the Atelier 17 studio in Paris. He went on to become a renowned printmaker, celebrated for his advancements in viscosity printing. Hayter was equally active as a painter; this work, Ophelia, is an abstract interpretation of Ophelia’s iconic death scene in Act 4 of Hamlet. A reinvention of Sir John Everett Millais’ 1851-52 painting of the same name after the same scene, Hayter’s fragmented forms and bright colours prove that Shakespeare’s influence even extends into modern art, perennial human themes that continue to be reimagined by artists today.

Showing a Shakespearean sensibility for understanding the human condition, in 1969, the artist said: “what is the intention of art? Perhaps it is to lead man toward a fuller understanding of his terms of existence; to aid all people to live more completely and escape from the history of human error; to demonstrate by example that the human mind has unlimited capacity to go further and further the more one demands of it.”

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