Review: Eduardo Paolozzi

A retrospective of Eduardo Paolozzi's work is currently on show at East London's Whitechapel Gallery. Before visiting the exhibition, I didn't think I knew who Paolozzi was, but it turns out that I see his work on a near-weekly basis at both the British Library, and at Tottenham Court Road tube station. The Whitechapel Gallery introduce the exhibition like so:

Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) was one of the most innovative and irreverent artists of the 20th century. Considered the ‘godfather of Pop Art’, his collages, sculptures and prints challenged artistic convention, from the 1950s through to the Swinging Sixties and advent of ‘Cool Britannia’ in the 1990s.
This major Eduardo Paolozzi retrospective spans five decades and features over 250 works; from the artist’s post-War bronzes, revolutionary screen-prints and collages, to his bold textiles and fashion designs.
Alongside Paolozzi’s early brutalist concrete sculptures, highlights include material from his groundbreaking performance lecture Bunk! (1952), his large-scale Whitworth Tapestry (1967) and the iconic sculpture Diana as an Engine (1963).

I wasn't really captured by images used on the promotional material, but on entering the first room of the exhibition my heart lifted at the colour and variety of the work on show. The combination of sculpture, print, and tapestry gave the show a texture very few artists could realistically offer.

The exhibition moves chronologically through Paolozzi's work, but each of the rooms still contains a mixture of prints, textile work, and sculpture. Highlights for me include some of the later figurative sculpture, and the prints that arose from Paolozzi's friendship with the writer J.G. Ballard.
Other significant moments are offered by the huge Whitworth Tapestry, with its bold colours and presence of Mickey Mouse, and the materials from Paolozzi's 1952 'Bunk!' lecture at the ICA.

Paolozzi's magpie-like adoption of different media makes for a kaleidoscopic, and rather marvellous, experience. It is well worth your time to familiarise yourself with an artist whose work is so present in London, yet whose name is still broadly unknown.

Recommended.

4/5: A colourful, lively retrospective from one of art's polymaths.
Whitechapel Gallery
Until 14 May 2017