S I R E D U A R D O P A O L O Z Z I
1924-2005
“Study for a sculpture, c. 1946”
Signed in ink, crayon and watercolour
28.5 x 20.2 cm
This sculpture study relates very closely to another sculpture study dated 1946, referenced in the Witt library, that was exhibited at Anthony d’Offay gallery in 1977. With relation to the d'Offay drawing, and comparisons with the signature form of this drawing, it would seem reasonable to date this work to 1946.
The success of his first solo show in 1946 at the Mayor Gallery enabled Paolozzi quit the Slade School of Art, where Alfred Munnings and Augustus John where still the artistic heros, and move in 1947 to what he considered the home of the Modern Movement - Paris.
Paolozzi returned from Paris in 1949 to teach at the Central School of Art and Desgin in London. Other staff at the time were Victor Pasmore, Hans Tisdall, William Turnbull and Alan Davie. Before finding a home in Shepherd's Bush in 1951 he lived an unsettled life staying variously with Nigel Henderson and the painter Lucien Freud - both great supporters of his work.
In 1952 he joined Henry Moore, Kenneth Armitage, Lynn Chadwick and Bernard Meadows, among others, in the British Pavillion at the Venice Biennale.
