Set among leading works of Pop Art (including Roy Lichtenstein’s painting In the Car), Illumination and the Eye by Eduardo Paolozzi (1967) hangs in the upstairs room in Modern 1. The unifying theme of this space is modern patterns; Paolozzi’s duo of prints are known as Artist’s proofs, or test pieces, which show a variety of different-shaped markings, including zigzags, polka dots and squares. The vivid, contrasting colourways of these two prints, plum on orange and brown on violet, lend themselves to the lively atmosphere of the room.
These screen prints were part of a collection of 75 works of the same content, all exploring different colourways, highlighting Paolozzi’s engagement with mass-production techniques – screen printing allows the artist to print the same pattern repeatedly and was popularised during the artist’s career. He was one of the first artists to explore the creative potential of this medium. This engagement with a new technology, mass production and mass consumption of art aligns well with the aims of international Pop Art. Paolozzi, with his early engagement with screen printing as
a fine art technique, rather than a commercial one, helped bring Scottish art into a global conversation.
At the Bottom of these animated prints are two lines of small, unintelligible red text. These lines could simply be another test, to see if text could be added to screen prints. Or a more imaginative possibility is that Paolozzi was engaging with a Dadaist or Surrealist technique of automatic writing, a method where the artist writes quicker than they can think, trying to engage in unconscious thought, testing the limits of language. This could be another nod to the artist’s engagement with a broader cross-pollination in art; Paolozzi represents the innovation of Scottish artists at this time, engaging with and pioneering techniques that sought to engage fine art with daily life.
Illustration by Amelia Patterson for The Student
