Paris Bird

Name: SIR EDUARDO PAOLOZZI (1924-2005)
Brand: Paris Bird
Price: 30000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 37,500

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GBP 50,000 - GBP 80,000

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SIR EDUARDO PAOLOZZI (1924-2005)

Paris Bird

Price Realised GBP 37,500

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

SIR EDUARDO PAOLOZZI (1924-2005)
Paris Bird
signed and numbered '2/6 EDUARDO PAOLOZZI' (on the side of the base)
bronze with a brown patina
13³⁄₄ x 14 x 6¹⁄₄ in. (34.9 x 35.5 x 15.8 cm.)
Conceived in 1948-49, and cast circa 1957, this work is from an edition of six

Richard Salmon Gallery, London.
Offer Waterman, London.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in February 2008.

M. Middleton, Eduardo Paolozzi, London, 1963, n.p. (another cast illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Eduardo Paolozzi, London, Tate Gallery, 1971, p. 11, fig. 8 (another cast illustrated).
W. Konnertz, Eduardo Paolozzi, Cologne, 1984, p. 53, no. 91 (another cast illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Homage to Henry Moore - A Tribute to Sculpture 1877-1987, London, Fischer Fine Art, 1987, n.p., no. 50 (another cast illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Eduardo Paolozzi: 70th Birthday Exhibition, West Bretton, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1994, pp. 2-3, 47 (another cast illustrated).
F. Pearson, Paolozzi: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1999, n.p., no. 15 (another cast illustrated).
P. Selz and J-P. Stonard, exhibition catalogue, Eduardo Paolozzi: Archaelogy of a Used Future: Sculpture 1946-1959, London, Jonathan Clark Fine Art, 2011, p. 23, fig. 12 (another cast illustrated).
J. Collins, Paolozzi, Farnham, 2014, p. 48, no. 34 (another cast illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Eduardo Paolozzi: Hollow Gods, Sculpture and Collage 1946-1960, London, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, 2019, pp. 26-27, no. 1 (another cast illustrated).

New York, Betty Parsons Gallery, Paolozzi, April - May 1962, no. 1, another cast exhibited.
Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Eduardo Paolozzi, February - April 1975, no. 3, another cast exhibited.
London, Fischer Fine Art, Homage to Henry Moore - A Tribute to Sculpture 1877-1987, May - July 1987, no. 50, another cast exhibited.
West Bretton, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Eduardo Paolozzi: 70th Birthday Exhibition, August - October 1994, exhibition not numbered, another cast exhibited.
London, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, Eduardo Paolozzi: Hollow Gods, Sculpture and Collage 1946-1960, October - December 2019, no. 1, another cast exhibited.

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
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Please note the starting bid of this lot is now £30,000

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Lot Essay

, 1947-48, is one of Paolozzi's most significant works from his time living in Paris. One of only three casts left in private hands, other casts from the same edition are held in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London; The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia.

Born in Scotland to Italian parents, Paolozzi studied at Edinburgh College of Art and then at the Slade School of Art in London from 1944. His time here was short-lived, and Paolozzi abandoned his studies at the Slade to move to Paris in 1947, funded by the proceeds of his exhibition held at the Mayor Gallery that same year. Followed shortly by his friend William Turnbull, who joined him in 1948, both artists set out to escape the somewhat traditional and stifling art scene in London in favour of an artistically freer existence in the French capital. Richard Morphet explains, ‘One of the most noticeable differences from London was the degree to which, in Paris, being an artist was accepted as a natural, serious, full-time profession and job of work. Moreover the climate of thought at the time in Paris was specifically sympathetic to the creative individual’s search for self-expression free of implicit restrictions on the use of unconventional idiom or content’ (R. Morphet, exhibition catalogue, London, Tate Gallery, 1973, p. 22).

While in his studio at 16 rue Visconti on the Île St Louis, Paris, Paolozzi began to experiment with constructing sculptural works from found or ‘junk’ objects and scraps of materials that were lying around his studio. , 1947-48 was conceived during this period, with areas of graining visible on some of the bronze elements suggestive of found wooden objects. Constructed of four arched forms on a T-shaped support that rests on a rectangular base, Paolozzi succeeds in creating an abstract work that stood in stark contrast to the Neo-Romantic style, which prevailed in Britain at the time. Originally made in clay and plaster for economic reasons, Paolozzi later cast the work in gunmetal and then bronze. One of the most prominent features of the present work are the striking pierced semi-circular forms, which resemble bird wings, propeller blades or some-kind of mechanical flying machine, emphasised by the title .

Paolozzi’s biomorphic sculptures, such as , are reminiscent of the Surrealist work of Alberto Giacometti from the 1920s, who he met while in Paris. During this time, Paolozzi also encountered Max Ernst and Dada artist Marcel Duchamp, who’s collages, ‘readymades’ and practices of adopting found objects into art, were of great interest to him.

, is not only a highly dynamic and visually arresting work but illustrates the pivotal time that Paolozzi spent in Paris, where he further pushed the boundaries of three-dimensional art, establishing him as one of the most inventive and experimental ambassadors of Modern British Art.

Post Lot Text
Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot. You must pay us an extra amount equal to the resale royalty and we will pay the royalty to the appropriate authority. Please see the Conditions of Sale for further information.