Discovering the Art of Edinburgh
Edinburgh is a city alive with art. Scotland’s capital boasts a number of high profile national and private galleries that are considered significant in Britain’s canon of art establishments.
Across the city lie civic works of art for public enjoyment, some commemorative and statuary, some abstract installations. One of Edinburgh’s most prolific civic artists was undeniably Eduardo Paolozzi.
In style, he is renowned as a late surrealist and early Pop Artist. His work, which traverses many different media, including painting, film, sculpture and collage, is recognisable predominantly through his expression of the fragmentation of the human form and disconnection from its surrounding world. He moulded towering goliaths, oversized outstretched hands and mechanistic sculptures of figures separated by cold cubist shapes, all of which gained Paolozzi the legacy of one of Britain’s most eminent artists and sculptors.
This notwithstanding, his beginnings were humble. Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi was born to Italian immigrant parents in Leith in 1924 and his upbringing was marred by incidence and tragedy relating to his naturalised heritage. Coming into his own in post war Britain, Paolozzi faced internment at Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison in 1940 when Italy declared war on Britain and he was detained for three months under the Emergency Powers Act. While on a ship taking them to Canada around the same time, Paolozzi’s father, grandfather and uncle drowned when the Andorra Star on which they were sailing, was sunk by a German U-Boat.
Paolozzi went on to forge deep ties with his Italian heritage, and visited Italy and continental Europe often, spending many years at a time studying, working and teaching, throughout his life. He also forged a rich relationship with the British art establishment throughout his prolific 81 years and forged a noteworthy career, credited by a number of significant milestones.
He studied first in evening classes at Edinburgh College of Art in 1943, followed by further study at St Martin’s School of Art in London in 1944, and at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London from 1945 until 1947. Later on in life he returned to academics, teaching in Cologne and Munich, as well as in Berkeley, California, and at the Royal College of Art, London.
Paolozzi’s skill was recognised from an early stage, for which he gained particular interest from the establishment. He went on to represent Britain at a number of high profile global art events, including the Venice Biennial in 1952 and the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1957. Accolades followed wherever Paolozzi went; the British Critic’s Prize in 1953, a CBE in 1968, election to the Royal Academy in 1979 and appointment to the office of Her Majesty’s Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland in 1986. Paolozzi also went on to receive a knighthood in 1989.
While he received many gifts from the establishment throughout his career, it was his eponymous Paolozzi gift that would shape his legacy. The National Gallery of Modern Art dedicated the entire Dean Gallery to his bestowed collection, which includes a mock-up of his original studio, complete with ephemera that typify his Pop Art leanings.
He has been honoured with exhibitions at some of Britain’s most prestigious galleries, including the National Portrait Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum and Serpentine Gallery in London.
Although Paolozzi died in 2005, after having suffered a massive stroke three years prior, his legacy endures and a number of pieces can be seen around Edinburgh, which are easily accessible for visitors. Frequent flights to Edinburgh bring millions of tourists to the city every year and with the city’s forthcoming Tram Project scheduled to take travellers from Edinburgh airport to Leith, you should find it easier than ever to discover Eduardo Paolozzi.
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