Sir Eduardo Paolozzi

Man’s Head

1952–3

© The Estate of Eduardo Paolozzi

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Not on display

Artist: Sir Eduardo Paolozzi 1924–2005
Medium: Ink, gouache and chalk on paper
Dimensions: Support: 718 x 571 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1959
Reference: T00293

Display caption

This drawing and the sculpture shown nearby date from early in Paolozzi's career. The drawing was made in London where Paolozzi had settled after a formative stay in Paris from 1947-9. There he had been drawn particularly to Surrealism with its rejection of conventional ideas of beauty, and its aim to make art directly from 'the depths of the mind'. In painting and drawing, this aim was often achieved by employing a free and improvisatory approach which would encourage a direct statement of inner feelings. The results, as here, were often akin to graffiti, or the art of the insane, or to 'primitive' or naive art. All of these were admired by artists such as Paolozzi for their freedom and directness of expression.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

T00293 MAN'S HEAD 1952–3

Inscr. ‘Eduardo Paolozzi 1953.’ b.r., over an earlier inscription, now overpainted, ‘Eduardo Paolozzi 1952’.
Indian ink, gouache and coloured chalks, 28 1/4×22 1/2 (72×57).
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1959.
Coll: C.A.S., purchased from the artist 1953.

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Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II