Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert is pleased to present this small exhibition of works from The Paolozzi Foundation, including a number of plaster heads, collages and works on paper, a set of screenprint and lithographs titled Z.E.E.P. , and three 'Wunderkammer' vitrines filled with a collection of small plasters made from a variety of subjects cast by the artist during the 80s and 90s. Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) was a highly resourceful and visionary sculptor, graphic artist and print maker. Born and raised in Edinburgh by Italian immigrant parents, he had a compulsion to collect from an early age. What began as a childish...
Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert is pleased to present this small exhibition of works from The Paolozzi Foundation, including a number of plaster heads, collages and works on paper, a set of screenprint and lithographs titled Z.E.E.P. , and three 'Wunderkammer' vitrines filled with a collection of small plasters made from a variety of subjects cast by the artist during the 80s and 90s.
Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) was a highly resourceful and visionary sculptor, graphic artist and print maker. Born and raised in Edinburgh by Italian immigrant parents, he had a compulsion to collect from an early age. What began as a childish curiosity, collecting the cigarette cards given to him by the customers visiting his father’s confectionary and ice cream parlour, soon expanded into everything and anything of visual intrigue - from a broken comb to clock parts, plastic figurines, kitchenware from Woolworths and magazine clippings collected from American GIs
Whilst living in Paris in the late forties Paolozzi met Alberto Giacometti and Jean Arp which precipitated a lifelong interest in Surrealism. His habit of accumulating objects of interest, no matter how seemingly small or trivial, proved an invaluable source of inspiration throughout a lengthy career and ultimately paved the way for Pop Art in the 1950s.
Paolozzi’s interest in current affairs, politics and popular culture also manifested itself in an endless pool of imagery, particularly notable in his collages, wood reliefs and numerous plaster casts of found objects, toys and miscellanea. This inquisitiveness and encyclopaedic subject matter spilled into his print making too. An openness to new media and novel printing techniques resulted in innovative graphic works and the portfolio of photolithographs entitled Z.E.E.P(Zero Energy Experimental Pile) on display here illustrates his true originality.
