Sculptor, printmaker and collagist, born Leith, Scotland to Italian parents. Paolozzi studied at Edinburgh College of Art, 1942 and at the Slade School during its evacuation to Oxford, 1943-47. In 1947 he went to live in Paris, where he met Giacometti, among others, and was considerably influenced by Dada and Surrealism and he soon developed the approach of a collagist in two and three dimensions. By 1949 he had returned to London having held his first solo exhibition the previous year at the Mayor Gallery and in 1952 founded, with others, the Independent Group. At its first meeting at the ICA, Paolozzi projected numerous images of advertisements, comic strips, industrial machinery, etc., in random order and with no verbal commentary. This was a ‘lecture’ which was arguably to become a landmark in the history of British Pop Art. He also took part in the 1956 exhibition, ‘This is Tomorrow’ at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. His sculpture of the 1950’s combined mechanical, biological, and totemic features. In the 1960’s he worked mostly in aluminium, sometimes brightly painted, chromed or polished. He also produced collage-based prints, including the series ‘As Is When’, based on the life and work of Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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Sculptor, printmaker and collagist, born Leith, Scotland to Italian parents. Paolozzi studied at Edinburgh College of Art, 1942 and at the Slade School during its evacuation to Oxford, 1943-47. In 1947 he went to live in Paris, where he met Giacometti, among others, and was considerably influenced by Dada and Surrealism and he soon developed the approach of a collagist in two and three dimensions. By 1949 he had returned to London having held his first solo exhibition the previous year at the Mayor Gallery and in 1952 founded, with others, the Independent Group. At its first meeting at the ICA, Paolozzi projected numerous images of advertisements, comic strips, industrial machinery, etc., in random order and with no verbal commentary. This was a ‘lecture’ which was arguably to become a landmark in the history of British Pop Art. He also took part in the 1956 exhibition, ‘This is Tomorrow’ at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. His sculpture of the 1950’s combined mechanical, biological, and totemic features. In the 1960’s he worked mostly in aluminium, sometimes brightly painted, chromed or polished. He also produced collage-based prints, including the series ‘As Is When’, based on the life and work of Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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