Eduardo Paolozzi (1924 – 2005)

Biography: Born in Leith to Italian immigrant parents, Eduardo Paolozzi KBE RA studied at Edinburgh College of Art, St Martin’s School of Art and then at the Slade in London. After studies he worked in Paris in the late 1940s where he became acquainted with Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, Constantin Brâncuşi, Georges Braque and Fernand Léger. This period became an important influence for his later work. On his return to the UK he set up a studio in Chelsea and he also lived and worked in Germany. In 1986 he was appointed the Queen’s Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland.
In 1994 Paolozzi gave the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art a large body of his work, and much of the content of his artist’s studio, which is now displayed in Modern Two in Edinburgh.