Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005) is perhaps best known for creating some of the earliest examples of British Pop Art, but less familiar is his work for the art and literature magazine, Ambit: work that shows a more politically engaged side to the artist than has previously been acknowledged. This exhibition presents Paolozzi’s Ambit works in the context of his other work from the late fifties to the early seventies.

Recruited to Ambit in 1967 by the magazine’s prose editor, J.G. Ballard, Paolozzi created a series of works using the magazine page as a space for collage, writing and visual essays. The artist’s works for Ambit tackle the war in Vietnam, the acceleration of technology, and the utopias of mass advertising.

As well as examples of Paolozzi’s work for Ambit, works on show include bronzes, prints, and artists’ scrapbooks, as well as a range of space age toys from the artist’s collection.

The exhibition is curated by David Brittain and Four Corners Books who published a facsimile edition of Paolozzi’s Ambit works, The Jet Age Compendium: Paolozzi At Ambit in June 2009.

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Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Collage

    The two-dimensional form of assemblage made by affixing paper, card, photographs, fabric and other objects to a flat surface. It is often combined with painting and drawing techniques. This technique was first introduced by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1912 during their phase of synthetic cubism.

  • Edition

    All copies of a book, print, portfolio, sculpture, etc., issued or produced at one time or from a single set of type. Printed works can be made in an edition of between one and many thousands of copies. With most printing techniques the plate or screen will become worn if very many prints are made, so to maintain quality (and exclusivity) editions of original prints are usually kept below one hundred copies and normally average between thirty and fifty copies. Prints made up of several different plates can be extremely complicated and time-consuming to edition, so in these cases editions are kept low for practical reasons. Sculptural editions are a set of cast sculptures taken from the same mould or master. These editions are usually much lower, consisting of no more than six casts. Though each cast in an edition might have a lower value than a unique piece, it may be a more effective way of offsetting costs of an expensive process such as bronze casting.