Spotted: Eduardo Paolozzi’s art hidden in plain sight
Marketers understand the value of art. Artworks connect with our senses and emotions, as a visual shorthand which no amount of words can match. That’s why visual imagery is crucial within marketing communications. In London, we have access to galleries of international importance to inspire our work. But is the best artwork hidden in plain sight? Take a look at this video tour of British artist Eduardo Paolozzi’s public artworks, dotted around town, and ask yourself if you’ve inadvertently walked past some of these. Art historian Kate Bryan provides the video commentary.
You can also read more about Scottish-born Paolozzi who’s been dubbed the grandfather of pop art:
Art on the underground Eduardo Paolozzi map
Where the art is
As you travel around London to meetings, why not take a moment to catch Paolozzi’s public artworks.
- Tottenham Court Road – Mosaics 1986, recently restored glass mosaics inspired by the local area.
- Pimlico – ‘Pimlico cooling tower’ 1982, a cast iron relief which is both a functioning ventilation shaft and a sculpture
- Euston – ‘Piscator’ 1981, an abstract sculpture honouring theatre director Erwin Piscator, providing a focal point at street level and from the high-rise offices above.
- Kings Cross St Pancras – ‘Newton after Blake’ 1994-97, figurative sculpture outside the British Library which embodies the quest for knowledge.
- Royal Victoria – ‘Vulcan’ 1999, sculpture of the roman god of fire (and metalwork) carrying a blacksmith’s hammer
- Kew Gardens station - ‘A Maximis Ad Minima’ 1998, which translates as ‘from the greatest to the least’ and continues Paolozzi’s lifelong exploration of mankind and robotics
- Kensington Gardens Station - ‘Head of Invention’ 1989, this human head features a Latin quote from Leonardo da Vinci: “Though human genius in its various inventions with various instruments may answer the same end, it will never find an invention more beautiful or more simple or direct than nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.”
- Aldgate East - And until 14 May there’s an exhibition of Paolozzi’s work at the Whitechapel Gallery.