Eduardo Paolozzi: The Wizard In Toytown

RedHouse Originals is honoured to announce an exhibition by the renowned Eduardo Paolozzi (1924 – 2005), the artist widely regarded as the original instigator of the Pop Art movement in Britain and the United States.

‘The Wizard In Toytown’ will feature graphic works on paper from across the artist’s career and will include original collages, unique lithographs and limited edition silkscreen prints.

Paolozzi was a founder member of the Independent Group; the collective of painters, sculptors, architects and writers who are considered the precursors to the Pop Art movement.

At the group’s first meeting at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1952, Paolozzi presented BUNK!, a mass of vibrant images he had collected from American magazines and re-assembled as scrapbook collages.

The series featured the seminal ‘I was a Rich Man’s’, ‘Plaything’, an affectionate collage Paolozzi had created in 1947 and the first recorded artwork to include the word ‘Pop’.

BUNK! was a breakthrough moment in the formation of Pop Art. The title referred to Henry Ford’s statement, emphasizing Paolozzi’s belief that his work should reflect popular culture:
“History is more or less bunk… We want to live in the present”

In 1972 Paolozzi collated these images to form a series of forty five silkscreen prints laid to paper in the style of the original collages. The BUNK! series is viewed as the artist’s farewell to the Pop movement and the complete set will feature in the Harrogate exhibition.