PAOLOZZI, Sir Eduardo

1924 - 2005

Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi was born in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland on 7 March 1924, the eldest child of Carmella (1902-11 January 1955) and Rudolfo Paolozzi, Italian immigrants, who, like many other fascists, were interned at the outbreak of World War Two, Eduardo's father and maternal grandfather were drowned in April 1942, when the 'Arondara Star' in which they were being sent to Canada, was torpedoed. Paolozzi studied at the Edinburgh College of Art 1941-1943, being conscripted into the army but was discharged as unfit in 1944. He then attended the Ruskin Drawing School of Drawing at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford being transferred to the Slade School of Fine Art, which had moved to Oxford during the war, where it shared the facilities of the Ruskin Drawing School, 1944-1947. Eduardo then moved to Paris and despite being introduced to artists such as Giacometti (1901-1966), Brancusi (1876-1957) and Braque (1882-1963), he was unsuccessful and came back to London, teaching at the London Central School of Art & Design 1949-1955. Whilst at the School, he met other renowned artists such as Lucian Freud, William Turnbull (1922-2012) and Francis Bacon (1909-1992), from whom he took inspiration. Paolozzi was interested in everything and would use a variety of objects and materials in his work, particularly his collages. He met his future wife Freda Madge Elliot[t] in 1943, whom he married at Kensington, London on 7 July 1951 and in 1955 they moved to Landemere, Thorpe-le-Soken in Essex from where he commuted to his studio in Chelsea. Eduardo and Freda had three daughters before their divorce in 1988. He taught sculpture and ceramics at several institutions, including the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg 1960–1962, University of California, Berkeley in 1968, the Royal College of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Ipswich School of Art. Paolozzi was appointed CBE in 1968 and in 1979 was elected to the Royal Academy. In 1986 he was promoted to the office of Her Majesty's Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland and Paolozzi was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1989 as Knight Bachelor. Widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art and was also an eminent sculptor, being responsible for the bronze figure of Sir Isaac Newton on the forecourt of the British Library and several others. Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi died in London on 22 April 2005.

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Works by This Artist