Overview
Artist Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) was a unique cultural figure. His varied yet instantly recognisable work chronicles the significant changes in British art from the austere 1950s to the post-post-modern late 1990s. This highly illustrated and visually exciting book provides the first comprehensive overview of the career of a major, prolific and complex artist, exploring Paolozzi's work from all periods and across all media: collage, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, tapestry and film.An Italian Scot, Paolozzi studied first at Edinburgh College of Art, before moving on to the Ruskin Drawing School and the Slade. He was a founding member of the Independent Group in the early 1950s but steadfastly resisted the 'Pop' label, preferring instead to see his pioneering interdisciplinarity as an extension and an expansion of radical Surrealism.Dedicating a chapter to each facet of Paolozzi's wide-ranging practice - including, in turn, his bronze, aluminium and public sculptures, as well as his early collages and his innovative screenprints - this book offers the definitive, illustrated, art-historical appraisal of an artist whose work continues to fascinate and inspire.Published with support from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.Reviews
"Presents Paolozzi as an extraordinary force in 20th century British art." —Guardian
"Tackling such a massive subject must have been a daunting undertaking, but the author's level-headed and methodical text navigates the reader through what might otherwise have seemed a chaotic jumble." —Country Life
"Judith Collins' sumptuous work is the first truly comprehensive review of a life and oeuvre that is going to take a long time to absorb and assimilate." —The Artist
"Judith Collins takes the reader on an exhilarating journey through the life and work of Eduardo Paolozzi in what must be the definitive study of this major force in twentieth-century art." —Times Literary Supplement
"[F]or anyone wanting to begin their Paolozzi education, or indeed to re-energise it, this book is a must. Every art lover's home should have one on their reinforced bookshelf." —The London MagazineAuthor Biography
Judith Collins is an independent curator and writer. She was responsible for several exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery, London, in the early 1980s, and then held the post of Senior Curator, Modern British Art, at Tate for 15 years. She is the author of Andy Goldsworthy: Midsummer Snowballs (2001), Lynn Chadwick (2006) and Sculpture Today (2007).