Paolozzi, Sir Eduardo

Paolozzi, Sir Eduardo (b Leith, Edinburgh, 7 Mar. 1924).
British sculptor, printmaker, and designer of Italian parentage. He had his first one-man exhibition as a sculptor in 1947 and in the same year he began making collages using cuttings from American magazines, advertising prospectuses, technological journals, etc. (I was a Rich Man's Plaything, 1947, Tate, London). Paolozzi regarded these collages as ‘ready-made metaphors’ representing the popular dreams of the masses, and they have been seen as forerunners of Pop art (he eventually amassed a large collection of pulp literature, art, and artefacts, which he presented to the University of St Andrews). From the 1950s he has worked primarily as an abstract sculptor, often on a large scale. His work of the 1950s was characteristically heavy and bulky, often incorporating industrial components, showing his interest in technology as well as in popular culture. In the 1960s his work became more colourful, including large totem-like figures made up from casts of pieces of machinery and often brightly painted. In the 1970s he made solemn machine-like forms and also boxlike low reliefs, both small and large, in wood or bronze, sometimes made to hang on the wall, compartmented and filled with small carved items. His more recent work has included several large public commissions, for example mosaic decorations for Tottenham Court Road underground station in London (installed 1983–5). Paolozzi has taught at various art schools and universities in Britain, Europe, and the USA. He was knighted in 1989 and has been awarded many other honours. See also Independent Group.