Eduardo Paolozzi is one of the most significant British artists of the twentieth century. A sculptor, collagist, printmaker, filmmaker and writer, his aim was to, “achieve a metamorphosis of quite ordinary things into something wonderful and extraordinary that is neither nonsensical nor morally edifying.” Ultimately, his varied work is a reflection on the sometimes miraculous, sometimes disquieting, and almost always-contradictory realities of modern life.

Considered a forefather to Pop Art, Paolozzi harbored a life-long interest in consumerism and the mass media. In the 1940s, early in his career, he anticipated the concerns of Pop with his dada and surrealist-inspired collages in which magazine advertisements, cartoons and machine parts combined. In 1952 he founded the Independent Group, as a challenge to the prevailing modernist approach and their strict demarcation of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture.

The scientific and technological developments of the post–war era are another recurring subject in Paolozzi’s work. He created sculptural visions of the mechanized world and incorporated constant impressions of nuts, bolts and scrapyard junk into his bronze figures. His study of machines arguably reflected both a delight in scientific advancement, and a fear of the destructive capabilities of technology, in the wake of the nuclear stand-off and America’s war in Vietnam. Complex though resolutely accessible, Paolozzi’s work repeatedly expresses the concerns, joys, fears and wonders of the modern age.

Numerous large-scale solo exhibitions of Paolozzi’s work have been presented by museums and galleries around the world including Cass Sculpture Foundation and Pallant House Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, National Portrait Gallery, London, Royal Academy of Art, London, Tate Gallery, London and Pace Gallery. He represented Britain at the 30th Venice Biennale in 1960, winning the David E. Bright award for the best artist under thirty. Paolozzi was awarded a CBE in 1968 and became a Royal Academician in 1979. In 1986, he was promoted to the office of Her Majesty’s Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland, which he held until his death in April 2005. In 1988 he was awarded a KBE and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. 

Courtesy of CASS Sculpture Foundation