Pioneer of the Pop Art movement, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi’s sculpture and printmaking is iconic.
Paolozzi initially intended to pursue a career in commercial art, but following studies at Edinburgh College of Art and the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, Oxford, he determined that he ‘wanted to make things’. In 1945 he commenced a sculpture diploma at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he immersed himself in European Modernism. His early sculptures in coloured concrete were exhibited to such acclaim in 1947 that he abandoned his Diploma and promptly moved to Paris, following in the footsteps of the Cubist and Surrealist artists he so admired. While in France he met many Modernists, but it was Alberto Giacometti who made the greatest impression.
LOT 258 | § SIR EDUARDO PAOLOZZI R.A., H.R.S.A. (BRITISH 1924-2005) | UNTITLED, CIRCA 1967-9 | Sold for £5,544*
After returning to London in 1949, Paolozzi taught at St. Martin’s School of Art and developed a sculptural technique he dubbed ‘the metamorphosis of rubbish’. This involved creating plaster impressions of found objects, which he would then cast in wax. These wax forms were then assembled to evoke body parts. These ‘Machine Age’ cast reconstructions appeared to examine the relationship between man and the mechanical, and were felt by many to define the atmosphere of the Cold War, earning the artist international renown.
In 1987, the novelist J. G. Ballard reflected that ‘if the entire twentieth century were to vanish in some huge calamity, it would be possible to reconstitute a large part of it from Paolozzi’s sculpture and screen prints.’
Lyon & Turnbull are delighted to offer several auctions a year across the UK featuring to Modern British painting, sculpture, prints and drawings - including MODERN MADE in London. These Modern British art auctions feature works from the likes of Walter Sickert and the Camden Town Group to Terry Frost and the St Ives School, we also handle selected works by all of 20th century Europe’s major figures and movements.
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