A friend told me he thought Paolozzi was the 'only living artist producing Fine Art today'. I had to inform him that Paolozzi (EP) had died, we get a bit out of touch in the village! It was good to hear someone else appreciated that Prometheus of British sculpture as I was planning this article.
It was 15 years ago today that I trundelled to Tate Britain to hear what EP had to say. I used to do little sketches and quick notes of speakers.
He informed us of his early days as a pilgrim in Paris searching out the likes of Brancusi & Giacometti. I think he bought a pieces from G. so i did a little cartoon of them haggling.
EP left a wonderful body of work for the nation with a collection in the Deans Gallery in Edinburgh which I have often stood in wonder staring at his feverish output. His lecture made use of 2 slide projectors to sling up images he'd cut from old magazineslike his hero Max Ernst whose collages he had seen in Tristan Tzara's collection in Paris. Those collages of unrelated disparate objects had a powerful influence on EP's output and subsequently on what is known to us as Pop Art. EP used 'found objects' to create waxes which he then put together into works like what my friend fondly called 'wardrobe' pieces.
I love EP's designs for the tube station at Tottenham Court Road which are reminiscent of a series of screenprints that he did with Kelpra Studios in the early 70's. I aspired to do prints like that but I could only manage a measly 7 or 8 colours! I love to see how EP cuts up and re-positions his 3D impressionsfrom multifarious surface. Take a look at his wonderfully accurate portrait of Richard Rogers and his variations where he cuts up Roger's head and inserts layers of surfaces from his found objects reminiscent of Picasso. He said a whole universe could be made from things that Picasso had begun and EP certainly had a go! I love his use of William Blake's 'Newton' and his incorporation of his own likeness into his sculpture outside the British Library. the freedom to use images from high art & comic, Blake & everyday objects was interpreted by EP from Ernst to you and me.
