Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi


1924 - 2005

Sculptor, described as one of the most influential British artists of the 20th Century. Born in Leith of Italian immigrant parents who ran an ice-cream parlour, Paolozzi was briefly interned in Saughton Prison (Edinburgh) during World War II. He trained at Edinburgh College of Art and the Slade School of Art, which had been evacuated from London to Oxford. Here he combined an admiration for tribal art with the influences of Picasso to define his unique style. He worked in Paris, where he was further exposed to surrealism, and London designing silk-screen printed textiles. He was admitted to the Royal Academy in 1979. Paolozzi was appointed a Professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Munich (1981-94). Examples of his work include public sculpture at the top of Leith Walk (Edinburgh), doors for the Hunterian Museum (Glasgow), a large piece in the Headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland (Edinburgh), together with work in the Dean Gallery of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Belford Road, Edinburgh) and the Tate Gallery in London. Paolozzi was also a noted print-maker and was an important contributor to the pop-art style.

Awarded a CBE in 1968, Paolozzi was knighted in 1988 and served as Her Majesty's Sculptor-in-Ordinary in Scotland from 1986. He held honorary degrees from several British universities, including the University of Edinburgh.

Paolozzi died in a London nursing home.


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