Pangolin London

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, CBE, RA (1924 –2005), was born in Leith, Edinburgh to Italian parents. He began studying at Edinburgh College of Art in 1943 and went on to attend both the Slade School of Fine Art and University College London from 1944-1947. After studying he travelled to Paris where he became acquainted with Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, Constantin Brancusi, Georges Braque and Fernand Léger.

After Paris, he returned to London where he set up his studio in Chelsea which quickly became inhabited with hundreds of found objects, models, sculptures, materials, magazine cuttings, tools, toys and stacks of books which he integrated into both his graphic and sculptural work.

Paolozzi first came to public attention in the 1950s when he produces a range of striking screenprints and ′Art Brut′ sculpture. He became a founding member of the Independent Group in 1952, which is widely regarded as the precursor to the mid 1950s British and late 1950s American Pop Art movements. He exhibited widely and was awarded the CBE in 1968 and in 1979 was elected to the Royal Academy.

A number of Paolozzi’s public works can be seen in London and include the mosaic designs in Tottenham Court Road Tube Station, ‘Piscator’outside Euston Station and ‘Newton, After William Blake’ in the courtyard of the British Library.

In 1994 Paolozzi gave the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art a large body of his works, and in 1999 the National Galleries of Scotland opened the Dean Gallery to display this collection and a remarkable recreation of his studio.