Eduardo Paolozzi

Born in 1924 at Edinburgh of Italian parents. He studied at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1943. He completed his National Service in 1944. Then he studied at St. Martin's School of Art, changing to the Slade School in 1945.

In 1947 he had his first one-man exhibition at the Mayor Gallery, London. In the same year he moved to Paris where he met Giacometti, Hélion, Tzara, Arp, Brancusi, Braque and Léger, and was influenced by Surrealism and Dubuffet's "art brut". In 1949 he returned to London and taught textile design at the Central School of Art and Design until 1955. He began to experiment with serigraphic techniques. In 1951 he designed textiles and wallpaper and sculpted a well for the Festival of Britain. In 1952 he was a founder member of the Independent Group at the ICA, London. His slide projections Bunk, started in 1947, with their collage of cuttings from advertising, comic-strips, design and magazines, provoked a controversial debate which had a considerable influence on the development of Pop Art. In 1952 he showed at the Venice Biennale.In 1953 he made wooden reliefs to hang on a park wall in Hamburg. In 1953 he collaborated with other members of the Independent Group in organizing the exhibition Parallel of Life and Art at the ICA. Its themes were the mass media, science and technology and their significance for contemporary art.