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(b Leith, Edinburgh, 7 Mar. 1924; d London, 22 Apr. 2005). British sculptor, printmaker, collagist, ceramicist, film-maker, designer, and writer, the son of Italian immigrant parents. His output was large and highly varied (in terms of style as well as technique), but he is remembered mainly for his early involvement with Pop art and for the large public sculptures he produced in his later years. He had his first one-man exhibition as a sculptor in 1947 and in the same year he began making collages, using cuttings from advertisements, American magazines, etc. (I was a Rich Man's Plaything, 1947, Tate, London). Paolozzi regarded these collages as ‘ready-made metaphors’ representing the popular dreams of the masses, and they have been seen as forerunners of Pop art (he eventually amassed a large collection of pulp literature, art, and artefacts, which he presented to the University of St Andrews).

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)


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