Three Wheel Tractor-Tank. 1980s
 

Biography

Sculptor, draughtsman, designer, printmaker and teacher, born in Leith. Midlothian, of Italian parents. Studied at Edinburgh College of Art, 1943, and Slade School of Fine Art, 1944-7. After Army service he worked in Paris, 1947-50, his work being shown at Galerie Maeght in 1948. His first one-man show was at Mayor Gallery, 1947 and in New York at Betty Parsons Gallery, 1960. By then Paolozzi had been represented at Venice Biennale in 1952, Sao Paulo Bienal in 1957, Documenta II, Kassel, 1959, and in various touring shows. After then Paolozzi's work was shown internationally, including Tate Gallery retrospective, 1971 and seventieth birthday show, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, 1994. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, holding the most extensive collection of his work, put on Paolozzi at 80 in 2004.

In 1999 the new Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, was opened to house the 1994 Paolozzi Gift and a recreation of his studio. The gift comprised about 5,000 works and found objects collected by him. From early in his career Paolozzi amassed a huge collection of toys and gifts, the Krazy Kat Archive, a selection of which is held but the Victoria & Albert Museum. All this contributed to the prolific output of this most energetic artist, the solemnity of whose work was tempered by humour, one of the fathers of British Pop Art.