A PRIVATE collection of work from the famous Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi is heading to auction.
Paolozzi is widely celebrated for his graphic works and sculptures and is regarded as a pioneer of the Pop Art movement.
Born in Leith in Edinburgh, of Italian descent, the artist trained at Edinburgh University in 1943, and later at the Slade School of Fine Art and University College London.
He also established the world-renowned company Hammer Prints Ltd, a design company creating textiles, ceramics, and wallpaper, and gained major public attention with his screen prints and Art Brut sculpture in the 1950s.
In 1994 Paolozzi gifted 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 the collection.
The gallery displays a recreation of Paolozzi's studio and also houses a Scottish Italian restaurant, Paolozzi's Kitchen, which was created by Heritage Portfolio in homage to the local artist.
Paolozzi (below) died in 2005 and is deemed as a precursor to the British and American Pop Art movements.
The works which are being auctioned by Dreweatts come directly through Paolozzi’s wife, Freda Paolozzi, with the private collection having been passed down through the family.
Among the works being offered at the auction is the project The History of Nothing based on a 12-minute film in 1962 which constitutes changing sepia and black and white stills, with a random soundtrack of aircraft, locomotives, kabuki theatre, church bells and barking dogs.
Paolozzi used pages from German travel and furniture magazines, along with exhibition catalogues he saved over 10 years to create the collages.
Speaking about the project Paolozzi said: “I am interested above all, in investigating the golden ability of the artist to achieve a metamorphosis of quite extraordinary things into something wonderful and extraordinary that is neither nonsensical not morally edifying.”
Some of the other works which will appear in the auction include ink sketches and collages of different mediums.
The Scottish artists also created a range of public artworks which are displayed around the country.
Among them are ceiling panels and a window tapestry at Cleish Castle, Kinross-shire, cast aluminium doors for the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Gallery, and The Manuscript of Monte Cassino, an open palm, a section of limb and a human foot, located at Leith Walk in Leith, Scotland.
The online auction by Dreweatts can be found here.
