Photo: Count Basie, 1987. Bronze. Eduardo Paolozzi (b.1924). © The Artist.
Grabbing her party bag, Kerry Patterson went to Edinburgh for a birthday celebration at the Dean Gallery.
Paolozzi at 80 is the first retrospective exhibition dedicated to Sir Eduardo Paolozzi that comprises all aspects of the famous artist's work.
It includes his sculptures, prints, collages, drawings and other designs and is on display at the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh until October 31.
The Dean Gallery is the natural place to hold such an exhibition, as the gallery houses the most extensive collection of Paolozzi’s work in the world.
Photo: Rulers of the Earth come from the Ranks of the Insects from Zero Energy Experimental Pile (Z.E.E.P.), 1970. Screenprint on paper Eduardo Paolozzi (b.1924). © The Artist.
Much of this was given to the gallery by the artist in 1995 and many pieces were also bequeathed by Paolozzi’s chief patron, Gabrielle Keiller, in the same year.
Anyone who has previously visited the Dean Gallery will be familiar with Paolozzi’s impressive sculpture of Vulcan that greets visitors in the main hall and stands at 7.3 metres (24 feet) in height. A reconstruction of the artist’s studio, filled to bursting with all kinds of weird and wonderful objects, is also on permanent display.
Eduardo Paolozzi was born in Leith in 1924 to Italian immigrant parents. As a child he was fascinated by popular culture, films and the colourful packaging from the sweet shop owned by his parents.
He studied at Edinburgh College of Art and later in Oxford and London before moving to Paris in the late 1940s.
Photo: Paris Bird, 1948-9. Bronze. Eduardo Paolozzi (b.1924). © The Artist.
It was in Paris that Paolozzi met a number of Surrealist artists and became friends with Giacommetti, who had a great influence on him. Like Picasso before him, the young artist was also interested in primitive sculpture.
As a keen visitor to the ethnographic museum in the city, his early drawings show the influence of exotic and primitive art.
However, Paolozzi is probably best known for being the 'father' of Pop Art, anticipating the movement with his vivid collages.
The artist had been using a collage technique since the mid 1940s, combining images of consumer goods, popular culture, technology, science and science fiction in witty, colourful works.
Photo: Hollywood Wax Machine from Zero Energy Experimental Pile (Z.E.E.P.), 1970.Screenprint on paper. Eduardo Paolozzi (b.1924). © The Artist.
Paolozzi extended the collage process to his sculpture. He would press objects such as cogs, nuts, and machine parts into clay and then pour over a layer of wax. Sculptures were then constructed from these wax sheets before a bronze cast was made.
This technique was used to make a series of bronzes in the late 1950s, which are among the most striking works on display.
These fractured, blasted figures reflect the post-atomic anxiety of the Cold War. They look as if they have barely survived a nuclear holocaust: noble and fragile but also frightening.
In Icarus (First Version) of 1957, the wings of the mythological hero have been reduced to pathetically charred feather-like stumps.
Photo: Master of the Universe, 1989. Bronze. Eduardo Paolozzi (b.1924). © The Artist.
In the early 1960s, Paolozzi abandoned this sculpture style following a visit to a shipbreaker’s yard in Hamburg, after which he began to use ready-made, engineered machine parts.
It was the beginning of a vein of work, which was developed over many years, as Paolozzi investigated robots and the synthesis of man and machine, exemplified in the gigantic sculpture of Vulcan.
Chronologically arranged, the exhibition is a comprehensive overview of Paolozzi’s work, from a drawing made when still at primary school to models of his public sculptures and projects.
The exhibition shows just how influential Paolozzi has been on art in the 20th Century.
