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Born in Scotland to Italian parents, Paolozzi attended evening classes at the Edinburgh College of Art and studied at St. Martin's School of Art, later transferring to London's Slade School of Art, where he graduated in 1947. He moved to Paris for three years where he met artists such as Giacometti, Arp, Brancusi, Braque and Leger, and became involved in Dadaism and Surrealism. In 1950, Paolozzi returned to London, quickly becoming a leading member of the Independent Group with other artists such as Richard Hamilton.
A significant member of the Group, Paolozzi greatly influenced the development of Pop Art. Having kept a scrapbook of images since 1947, he reproduced the pages for viewing during a landmark lecture to the Independent Group in 1952. He presented slides made from scrapbook images, fragments from comic books, postcards, magazines and advertisements. The presentation of these collage images sparked a controversial debate among the Group's members; these images are now considered amongst the earliest forerunners of Pop Art.
Paolozzi’s bronze sculptures of the 1950s contained elements that presaged his Pop works, including references to robots and the incorporation of found objects into the maquette before casting. He emerged fully onto the Pop Art scene in 1962 with his abstract, robot-like figures such as Four Towers and Solo.
By the mid-1960s these sculptures began to take on more geometric proportions, with glossy industrial finishes and bright primary colours. At the same time Paolozzi also began to produce collage-based screenprints which are among his most important contributions to Pop Art. Though his later work continued to make reference to the mass media and contain elements of collage, he began to explore abstract formal language and returned to the use of aluminium, stainless steel and chromed steel.
Of all his work, Paolozzi's screenprints are said to have had the largest impact on Pop Art. His innovative use of the collage technique translated well onto screenprint, which retained a collage-like effect, but played down the individuality of each article used, instilling within the work a stronger sense of unity. In his use of disparate images from newspapers and magazines he attempted to capture the "schizophrenic quality of life," where the individual is confronted everyday with a barrage of imagery from mass-media communication.
Paolozzi leaves his viewers with a number of images from which they must draw their own interpretations.
He taught all over the world as guest professor and lecturer, and was knighted in 1988.
Eduardo Paolozzi died in 2005. |
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