Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art.

Early years

Eduardo Paolozzi was born on 7 March 1924, in

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

in north

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, Scotland, and was the eldest son of Italian immigrants. His family was from

Viticuso Viticuso is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Frosinone in the Italian region Lazio, located about southeast of Rome and about east of Frosinone. Viticuso borders the following municipalities: Acquafondata, Cervaro, Conca Casale, Po ...

, in the

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

region. Paolozzi’s parents, Rodolfo and Carmela, ran an ice cream shop. Paolozzi used to spend all his summers at his grandparents place in

Monte Cassino Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first ho ...

and grew up bilingual. In June 1940, when Italy declared war on the United Kingdom, Paolozzi was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

(along with most other Italian men in Britain). During his three-month internment at Saughton prison his father, grandfather and uncle, who had also been detained, were among the 446 Italians who drowned when the ship carrying them to Canada, the ''

Arandora Star SS ''Arandora Star'', originally SS ''Arandora'', was a British passenger ship of the Blue Star Line. She was built in 1927 as an ocean liner and refrigerated cargo ship, converted in 1929 into a cruise ship and requisitioned as a troopship in t ...

'', was sunk by a

German U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

. Paolozzi studied at the

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

in 1943, briefly at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of ...

in 1944, and then at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

from 1944 to 1947, after which he worked in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. While in Paris from 1947 to 1949, Paolozzi became acquainted with Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, Constantin Brâncuși, Georges Braque and Fernand Léger. This period became an important influence for his later work. For example, the influence of Giacometti and many of the original Surrealists he met in Paris can be felt in the group of lost-wax sculptures made by Paolozzi in the mid-1950s. Their surfaces, studded with found objects and machine parts, were to gain him recognition.

Career

After Paris, he moved back to London eventually establishing his studio in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. The studio was a workshop filled with hundreds of found objects, models, sculptures, materials, tools, toys and stacks of books."Paolozzi Studio"
, National Galleries of Scotland. Paolozzi was interested in everything and would use a variety of objects and materials in his work, particularly his

collages Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an Assemblage (art), assemblage of different forms, thus creat ...

.″Mythologies″, Exhibit Catalog, ''The Scottish Gallery'', 2–26 May 1990. In 1955 he moved with his family to the village of

Thorpe-le-Soken Thorpe-le-Soken is a village and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England located east of Colchester, west of Walton-on-the-Naze, Frinton-on-Sea and north of Clacton-on-Sea. History Since 2002, archaeological investigations ahead ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. Together with Nigel Henderson he established

Hammer Prints Limited Hammer Prints Limited was a company founded in 1954 by Nigel Henderson and Eduardo Paolozzi. History Founded on 5 August 1954, Hammer Prints Ltd was established: "To purchase, sell, manufacture, hire or act as agents for the sale of textile ...

, a design company producing wallpapers, textiles and ceramics that were initially manufactured at Landermere Wharf, and when his evening course in printed textile design at the Central School of Art and Design attracted the

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

graphics student Althea McNish, he was instrumental in pointing her towards her future career as a textile designer. Paolozzi came to public attention in the 1950s by producing a range of striking

screenprint Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

s and Art brut sculpture. He was a founder of the Independent Group in 1952, which is regarded as the precursor to the mid-1950s British and late 1950s American Pop Art movements. His seminal 1947 collage '' I was a Rich Man's Plaything'' is considered the earliest standard bearer representing Pop Art. He always described his work as surrealist art and, while working in a wide range of media though his career, became more closely associated with sculpture. Paolozzi is recognized for producing largely lifelike statuary works, but with rectilinear (often cubic) elements added or removed, or the human form deconstructed in a

cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

manner.

He taught sculpture and ceramics at several institutions, including the

Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg The ''Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg)'' is the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. It dates to 1767, when it was called the ''Hamburger Gewerbeschule''; later it became known as ''Landeskunstschule Hamburg''. The main build ...

(1960–62),

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

(in 1968) and at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

. Paolozzi had a long association with Germany, having worked in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

from 1974 as part of the Berlin Artist Programme of the German Academic Exchange Programme. He was a professor at the Fachhochschule in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

from 1977 to 1981, and later taught sculpture at the

Akademie der Bildenden Künste The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. Paolozzi was fond of Munich and many of his works and concept plans were developed in a studio he kept there, including the mosaics of the Tottenham Court Road Station in London. He took a stab at industrial design in the 1970s with a 500-piece run of the upscale ''Suomi'' tableware by

Timo Sarpaneva Timo Tapani Sarpaneva (31 October 1926 – 6 October 2006) was an influential Finnish designer, sculptor, and educator best known in the art world for innovative work in glass, which often merged attributes of display art objects with utilitaria ...

that Paolozzi decorated for the German Rosenthal

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

maker's ''Studio Linie''. Paolozzi's graphic work of the 1960s was highly innovative. In a series of works he explored and extended the possibilities and limits of the silkscreen medium. The resulting prints are characterised by Pop culture references and technological imagery. These series are: ''As Is When'' (12 prints on the theme of Paolozzi's interest in the philosopher

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

; published as a limited edition of 65 by Editions Alecto, 1965); ''Moonstrips Empire News'' (100 prints, eight signed, in an acrylic box; published as a limited edition of 500 by Editions Alecto, 1967); ''Universal Electronic Vacuu'' (10 prints, poster and text; published by Paolozzi as a limited edition of 75, 1967); ''General Dynamic Fun''. (part 2 of ''Moonstrips Empire News''; 50 sheets plus title sheet; boxed in five versions; published as a limited edition of 350 by Editions Alecto, 1970). In the 1960s and 1970s, Paolozzi artistically processed man-machine images from popular science books by German doctor and author

Fritz Kahn Fritz Kahn (29 September 1888 – 14 January 1968) was a German-Jewish physician who published popular science books and is known for his illustrations, which pioneered infographics. Biography Fritz Kahn was born in Halle an der Saale, Germ ...

(1888–1968), such as in his screenprint "Wittgenstein in New York" (1965), the print series ''Secrets of Life – The Human Machine and How it Works'' (1970), or the cover design for

John Barth John Simmons Barth (; born May 27, 1930) is an American writer who is best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include ''The Sot-Weed Factor'', a sa ...

's novel ''

Lost in the Funhouse ''Lost in the Funhouse'' (1968) is a short story collection by American author John Barth. The postmodern stories are extremely self-conscious and self-reflexive and are considered to exemplify metafiction. Though Barth's reputation rests mainly ...

'' (Penguin, 1972). As recently as 2009, the reference to Kahn was discovered by Uta and Thilo von Debschitz during their research of work and life of Fritz Kahn.

Later career

Tottenham Court Road stn Central line mosaic

Paolozzi was appointed

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in 1968 and in 1979 he was elected to the Royal Academy. During the late 1960s, he started contributing to literary magazine '' Ambit'', which began a lifelong collaboration. In 1980, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) commissioned a set of three tapestries from Paolozzi to represent 'present day and future societies in relation to the role played by ICAEW', as part of the institute's centenary celebrations. The three highly distinctive pieces - which Paolozzi wanted to ''"depict our world of today in a manner using the same bold pictorial style as the Bayeux tapestries in France"'' - currently hang in

Chartered Accountants' Hall Chartered Accountants' Hall is a Grade II* listed building located at 1 Moorgate Place in the City of London. It is the headquarters of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW). The Hall is one of the richest example ...

. He was promoted to the office of Her Majesty's Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland in 1986, which he held until his death. He also received an

Honorary Doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from Heriot-Watt University in 1987. Paolozzi was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1989 as Knight Bachelor (). In 1994, Paolozzi gave the

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...

a large body of his works, and much of the content of his studio. In 1999 the National Galleries of Scotland opened the Dean Gallery to display this collection. The gallery displays a recreation of Paolozzi's studio, with its contents evoking the original London and Munich locations and also houses Scottish-Italian a restaurant, Paolozzi's Kitchen, which was created by Heritage Portfolio in homage to the local artist. In 2001, Paolozzi suffered a near-fatal stroke, causing an incorrect magazine report that he had died. The illness made him a wheelchair user, and he died in a hospital in London in April 2005. In 2013, Pallant House Gallery in Chichester held a major retrospective ''Eduardo Paolozzi: Collaging Culture'' (6 July −13 October 2013), featuring more than 100 of the artist's works, including sculpture, drawings, textile, film, ceramics and paper collage. Pallant House Gallery has an extensive collection of Paolozzi's work given and loaned by the architect

Colin St John Wilson Sir Colin Alexander St John ("Sandy") Wilson, FRIBA, RA, (14 March 1922 – 14 May 2007) was an English architect, lecturer and author. He spent over 30 years progressing the project to build a new British Library in London, originally planned t ...

, who commissioned Paolozzi's sculpture '' Newton After Blake'' for the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

Notable Public Works

* Mosaic murals for the platforms, passages and escalator entrances of

Tottenham Court Road tube station Tottenham Court Road is a London Underground and Elizabeth line station in St Giles in the West End of London. The station is served by the Central line, the Elizabeth line and the branch of the Northern line. The station is located at St Gil ...

, London, and Paolozzi's most extensive work. Escalator entrance murals were removed as part of redevelopment, and were donated to the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

though most mosaics remain in situ and were restored in 2017. * Cover artwork for

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

's album ''

Red Rose Speedway ''Red Rose Speedway'' is the second studio album by the British–American rock band Wings, although credited to "Paul McCartney and Wings". The album was released by Beatles-owned label Apple Records in April 1973, preceded by its lead single, ...

'' * Ceiling panels and window tapestry at Cleish Castle * '' Piscator'' sculpture,

Euston Station Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...

concourse, London, until 2019, present location unknown * Cast aluminium doors for the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

's Hunterian Gallery, commissioned by William Whitfield * Bronze sculpture '' Newton after Blake'', 1995, in the forecourt of the

* ''The Manuscript of Monte Cassino'', an open palm, a section of limb and a human foot, located at

Leith Walk Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the centre of the city to Leith. Forming most of the A900 road, it slopes downwards from Picardy Place at the south-western end of the street to th ...

, looking towards Paolozzi's birthplace Leith * ''Head of Invention'' sculpture in front of the Design Museum in Kensington * Sculpture '' A Maximis Ad Minima'' in

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the ...

at the west end of the Princess of Wales Conservatory * Mosaics in

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

Town Centre * ''Athena'' sculpture in the foyer of the John McIntosh Arts Centre at

The London Oratory School The London Oratory School, also known as "The Oratory" or "The London Oratory" to distinguish it from other schools, is a Catholic Church, Catholic Secondary school#United Kingdom, secondary school for boys aged 7–18 and girls aged 16–18 in W ...

* ''Faraday'' sculpture at the University of Birmingham * '' The Artist as Hephaestus'', on

High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and ...

from 1987, removed 2012 present location unknown File:Scotland's Early People (9648956583).jpg, ''Scotland's Early People'',

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

. The sculptures incorporate display cases for ancient artefacts File:Paolozzi Monte Cassino 3.jpg, ''The Manuscript of Monte Cassino'' File:2006-06-05 - London Flickr Scavenger Hunt 2 4888936204.jpg, '' The Artist as Hephaestus'' File:Paolozzi For Leonardo 1986-3.jpg, ''For Leonardo'', 1986 File:Faraday Monument, Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower 2011.jpg, ''Faraday'', at the University of Birmingham File:Vulcan by Eduardo Paolozzi (1999) in the Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art.jpg, ''Vulcan'', 1998–9,

Other work

* Eduardo Paolozzi played a deaf-mute in

Lorenza Mazzetti Lorenza Mazzetti (26 July 1927 – 4 January 2020) was an Italian film director, novelist, photographer and painter. Early life Mazzetti was born in Florence. Her mother, Olga Liberati, died shortly after giving birth to Lorenza and her twi ...

's 1956

Free Cinema Free Cinema was a documentary film movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1950s. The term referred to an absence of propagandised intent or deliberate box office appeal. Co-founded by Lindsay Anderson (but he later disdained the ...

film ''

Together ''ToGetHer'' (, aka Superstar Express) is a 2009 Taiwanese drama starring Jiro Wang of Fahrenheit, Rainie Yang and George Hu. It was produced by Comic International Productions ( 可米國際影視事業股份有限公司) and directed by Linzi ...

'', alongside the painter Michael Andrews. * A photograph of Paolozzi's large, well-worn right hand was selected by

Lord Snowdon Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, (7 March 1930 – 13 January 2017), was a British photographer and filmmaker. He is best known for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in ''Vogue'', ''Vanity Fai ...

as the cover image for his book ''Photographs by Snowdon: A Retrospective'' (August 2000).

Writings

* ''Metafisikal Translations'' by Eduardo Paolozzi, Lelpra, London, 1962 * ''Eduardo Paolozzi'' by Eduardo Paolozzi, Tate, London, 1971 * '' Junk and the New Arts and Crafts Movement'' by Eduardo Paolozzi, Talbot Rice Centre, Edinburgh, August 1979 * ''Recurring themes'' by Eduardo Paolozzi, Rizzoli (1984),

Sources

External links

*
Tate Collection of Sir Eduardo Paolozzi: 381 Works

Works in National Galleries of Scotland

''Daily Telegraph'' obituary, 23 April 2005
"Pop artist Paolozzi dies aged 81"
BBC News, 22 April 2005

The Tottenham Court Road Underground Station mosaics

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi Gallery website

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi Projects 1972 – 2000

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi – Jonathan Clark Fine Art

Independent Gallery

Paolozzi's internment recorded in Saughton Prison records, National Archives of Scotland
* John-Paul Stonard
"The ‘Bunk’ collages of Eduardo Paolozzi"
''

The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation s ...

'', April 2008
Designer Nicole Farhi on her "friend and mentor" Eduardo Paolozzi
''Daily Telegraph'', 6 July 2013
"The Subject is S.I.N."
Review of the Sixties screenprints. {{DEFAULTSORT:Paolozzi, Eduardo 1924 births 2005 deaths Academics of the Royal College of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Scottish printmakers Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art Scottish people of Italian descent Modern sculptors Royal Academicians Scottish sculptors Scottish male sculptors People from Leith Knights Bachelor Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Academy of Fine Arts, Munich faculty Geometry of Fear Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art Academics of Saint Martin's School of Art Scottish contemporary artists 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century British printmakers People from Thorpe-le-Soken British pop artists Artists from Edinburgh