Sir Eduardo Paolozzi

Shattered Head

1956

© The Eduardo Paolozzi Foundation

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Not on display

Artist: Sir Eduardo Paolozzi 1924–2005
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: Object: 286 × 241 × 184 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1959
Reference: T00273

Display caption

In the late 1950s Paolozzi made a handful of works whose titles indicated some kind of damage. There was 'Wounded Animal', 'Damaged Warrior' and this work 'Shattered Head'. These works were made up from sheets of wax and often had holes or parts missing. At this time Paolozzi was living in London and decided that he wanted to try casting his own small bronzes, of which this is an example. He set up a small foundry in the Hampstead back garden of a friend and cast a few works, using the lost wax method. The bronze master of this was cast in the garden foundry, but an edition of nine was cast by professional founders.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

T00273 SHATTERED HEAD 1956

Not inscribed.
Bronze, 11 1/4×9 1/2×7 1/4 (28·5×24×18·5).
Purchased from the Executors of the late E. C. Gregory (Grant-in-Aid) 1959.
Coll: E. C. Gregory, purchased from the artist after it returned from Sweden 1957.
Exh: British Council tour, Young British Sculptors, Sweden, 1956–7 (43, another cast (?) repr.).
Repr: ? another cast: exh. cat., Hanover Gallery, November–December 1958 (36); this cast: exh. cat., Gregory Memorial Exhibition, Leeds, March–April 1960, pl.3.

One of three unsigned casts made by Fiorini and Carney, London, after the bronze original of 1956 in the collection of Mrs Dorothy Morland; six further casts, numbered and signed, were made by Susse Frères in Paris, one of which was the work exhibited at the Hanover Gallery in 1958.

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