KEX - Eduardo Paolozzi

Picture, picture on the wall, who is the greatest artist of them all? A stupid question, yes, but just the other day I told myself 'Paolozzi is the greatest artist of them all', or words to that effect. There's no Greatest, as you know, not even Picasso. I was thinking British artists anyway.

But let's allow ourselves to get carried away. We like lists, don't we? They're infuriating, which is partly why we like them because often we disagree and they give us the chance to reaffirm our superior taste, to ourselves at least. 

I've just searched for a poll that suited and found this from The Independent nine years ago. According to a poll of 1,000 British painters and sculptors Hockney is 'the most influential British artist of all time'. OK. It's a Top 10. Eduardo Paolozzi isn't in it. Grayson Perry and Banksy are. So is Jack Vettriano (checks date to make sure it's not April 1st). No Richard Hamilton either. Hello?

In a bigger poll published in The Times (2009) titled Top 200 Artists of the 20th Century to Now Paolozzi almost makes the Top 100 (out of 200). He doesn't beat Bridget Riley at number 94. At this point, I take a deep breath, count to ten...curse these polls!

We each have our own polls in which we are the sole voters. You'll have guessed by now that Paolozzi would be high in mine (no, I'm not revealing it, I haven't compiled one). My appreciation of/love for him has escalated over the least few years. How or why this happened, I don't know. Further investigations, looking closer, reading more. 

Those investigations lead me to discover that he'd created a book in in 1966 called KEX. I say 'created' but it was designed by Richard Hamilton using material selected by Paolozzi. I recently bought a copy. No, I'm not well-off, or even comfortably-off enough to be casual about buying artist's books from the 60s. I was, however, an avid record-buyer for most of my adult life so I traded in some vinyl in order to buy this. 

The texts are all assembled from various sources. He would use the same technique a few years later for Abba Zaba, which you can have a look at on my old blog since I own that book too. In relation to his use of texts as alternate 'art' statements, The Jet Age Compendium: Paolozzi at Ambit is a great book. Filmmaker, sculptor, collagist, print-maker...I admire diversity in an artist's efforts. Few are able to apply themselves well to multi-media and, like Paolozzi, reflect a coherent attitude, as he does, towards art, yes, society, literature, philosophy...you know, kulture. Others, such as Peter Blake or Hockney may personify the 60s, but neither encapsulate so many elements of the decade in a multitude of creations. Not only did he cross over style boundaries but he bridged the decades (50s to 60s).

Enough of my chat anyway. Take a look at a few pages from KEX. There will be another special Paolozzi product featured here soon. (Yes, I've been trading again). TTFN