Eduardo Paolozzi K.B.E., R.A., H.R.S.A. (Scottish 1924-2005) §
Crash Head, conceived 1970
£25,000
Auction: 30 April 2021 from 10:00 BST
Description
stamped and numbered 'E. PAOLOZZI.10.10' (to front of base), bronze with gold patina and steel chain
Dimensions
39.5cm high (15.5in high) (including the base)
Footnote
Provenance:
Private Collection, Canada;
Christie's, London, 23 October 1996, Lot 58;
Bonham's, London, 20 November 2013, Lot 90.
Literature:
Winfried Konnertz, Eduardo Paolozzi, DuMont, Cologne, 1984, p.183, cat.no.341 (another cast ill.b&w);
Fiona Pearson, Paolozzi, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1999, p.51, cat.no.57 (another cast col.ill).
By 1970, Eduardo Paolozzi was distancing himself from the ‘Pop Art’ label, feeling it conjured up images of ‘diving into a barrel of Coca-Cola bottles.’ He was engaging with darker subject matter in a way that he felt extended the tradition of Surrealism. Close friends with the science-fiction writer J.G. Ballard, both men had a particular fascination with car crashes, with Ballard specifying that he was interested in the modern day engagement with violence, which mainly took place in the mind, rather then in our physical responses. He felt the car crash was often the one act of violence that the modern day person would physically experience in their life, and even this dramatic impact is between two machines. Interestingly, a shining symbol of modern success and achievement, the car, becomes a destructive and dangerous force in our lives, dream turns nightmare.
Crash Head was produced for Paolozzi’s Tate retrospective in 1971. Eduardo was particularly interested in technology and man’s relationship with machines, often fusing human and machinery elements. In Crash Head, he uses the head of a safety test dummy as a model and then applies machine elements; a chunky chain affixed to the head and Frankenstein-esque bolts to the neck. His choice of the model used in car safety testing and demonstrations is a direct engagement with the idea of the violence a car can inflict and an explicit set-up of man versus machine. Yet the quality of the materials, attractive contrasting silver and bronze colours and sleek finish of the sculpture belie these darker undercurrents.
The sculpture was produced in an edition of ten. There is one in the National Galleries of Scotland collection, bequeathed by Gabrielle Keiller in 1995, and another is held in the collection of the Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum, gifted by The Scottish Arts Council in 1988.