Sir Eduardo PaolozziHistory of Nothing 1962

History of Nothing is a print in soft ground aquatint on white paper with extensive overworking in black ink. The composition suggests sections of a film reel or a photographic contact sheet, with strips of images placed side by side in ten columns. Each strip comprises thirteen individual frames, totalling some 130 frames in the complete composition. In each of the frame an object, scene or pattern is crudely delineated in black. The subjects of the individual frames evoke for the most part technology and the industrial age, presenting details of cogs, wheels and other mechanisms. Some frames show faces or buildings… (read more)