FROM THE PRINT EDITION
Eduardo Paolozzi Retrospective at Whitechapel Gallery
A frequent topic of this magazine is the distinction between collage as a medium and collage as a genre. This idea comes from the observation that many, if not most, modern artists have either made collage or used collage as part of their process. This goes back to the beginning. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were less interested in the juxtaposition of fragments than they were in using materials to convey flatness in painting. In Kolaj #2, we wrote about how Venezuelan painter Alejandro Otero, in a fit of inspiration, cut up and reconfigured his mundane cubist paintings one evening as a means of imagining the geometric abstraction for which he became famous. Collage facilitates innovation. And perhaps no artist fully wielded the technology of collage more than Eduardo Paolozzi.
In Kolaj #19, Ric Kasini Kadour writes about how an exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery highlights Paolozzi’s reputation as an apex figure of Modernist art, one of particular importance to collage.
The Eduardo Paolozzi exhibition was held at Whitechapel Gallery in London, 16 February-14 May 2017. A fully illustrated catalogue, entitled Eduardo Paolozzi, is available in paperback (£29.99) and hardback (£40) from the gallery. Learn more at www.whitechapelgallery.org.
This article originally appeared in Kolaj #19. To read the full article and more about the world of collage, Subscribe or Get a Copy of the print magazine.
Image (top):
Conjectures to Identity
by Eduardo Paolozzi
31.3″x20.7″
screenprint
1963-1964
British Council Collection
Courtesy the British Council Collection
© Trustees of the Paolozzi Foundation, licensed by DACS
Image (bottom):
The Whitworth Tapestry
84″x168″
wool, linen and Terylene
1967
Courtesy The Whitworth, University of Manchester
© Trustees of the Paolozzi Foundation, licensed by DACS