London sculpture - Cornelius O’Boyle

Question of the week: The London Centre is hosting a conference on Eric Gill next week. Aside from Gill's work, do you have a favourite London sculpture or sculptor?

"One of Britain’s least appreciated yet most influential artists of the 20th century, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005), did more than probably any other contemporary British sculptor to open up Britain to European trends in modernism and post-modernism. Born in Scotland, the son of Italian immigrants, Eduardo first studied art in Edinburgh and London. He then moved to Paris and worked with some of the world’s greatest 20th-century modernist sculptors, including Brancussi and Braque. He returned to London to set up his studio in Chelsea, from where he rapidly became one of London’s main conduits for surrealism, pop art, and German modernism.

What makes Paolozzi so fascinating is the sheer range of styles and materials he chose to work with. London is fortunate to showcase this magnificent facility, although Paolozzi’s works are not always displayed to greatest effect. How many people walking through the drab wind-swept piazza in front of Euston Station properly appreciate Paolozzi’s magnificent modernist “Piscator” sculpture? Or how many millions of passengers passing through Tottenham Court Road tube station stop to admire the amazing intricacy of his mosaic tiling? More popular with the tourists is Paolozzi’s giant post-modernist “Head of Invention” in front of the Design Museum at Butler’s Wharf, on the South Bank of the Thames.

One of his greatest works, however, has to be his instantly recognizable sculpture of Blake’s “Newton Inscribing the World” in the magnificent piazza of the British Library. But how many people really appreciate the irony of this piece? As a romantic, Blake had decried Newton’s attempt to expose nature’s true meaning through mathematics whereas here Paolozzi computerizes the famous image and sets it up in front of one of the world’s great institutions devoted to rationally comprehending man and nature. This is indeed an ironic apotheosis of Newton and the paradigm of (post-)modernity!"
- Cornelius O’Boyle

* Photos by R.P. Marks (Piscator) and Veeliam (both Newton images), used under Creative Commons, with thanks.