Eduardo Paolozzi is 100 years old!

 

No, he's not actually 100 years old - he would be. So what better excuse for celebrating Britain's greatest artist...

Is he Britain's greatest artist?

No, he is the Greatest Artist of the 20th Century!

Is he?

Here's how I know: of all the monographs on artists I have, anything about or featuring Paolozzi has been pulled from the shelves more than any other books. What other evidence do you need?

Do you need a book on Paolozzi? Yes. But I can't recommend just one. The Judith Collins one, simply called Eduardo Paolozzi, is very good and full of colour images. The other essential one is Writings And Interviews, edited by Robin Spencer. The link takes you to one available on Amazon at the cheapest I've seen (£92). It seems to be ex-library but I'd snap it up all the same if I was you because it's packed with interviews and texts by Paolozzi unavailable elsewhere.

My most treasured Paolozzi books are those he produced (with help) in the 60s, the 'artist's books', Kex, Abba Zaba and The Metallization Of A Dream. Another, Metafisikal Translations has eluded me so far, being too expensive. You can see my post on Kex here. Abba Zaba is featured here. The Psychological Atlas is here. The brown book with the embossed cover is The Metallization Of A Dream...

Paolozzi was born in Leith, Scotland. To celebrate his 100 anniversary Leith Athletic F.C. have produced shirts and scarves inspired by The Man. Great idea, eh? I'd buy a scarf but they've currently sold out. Wearing it in London would certainly surprise any Scottish tourists.

I'll say no more because, as you'll see if you click on the Paolozzi tab on the side, I've said quite a bit about Him on this and my other blog. Suffice to say he has been and always will be a great inspiration to me through his writings and Art. So here are more pictures...

From Bash, an unpublished novel, late-60s

 

Book: Collage, Assemblage and the Found Object - Diane Waldman - Joseph Cornell as an Abstract Expressionist?

 

First art book purchase of 2024, found at a reasonable price on the Oxfam website (cheaper than anywhere else). Hardback edition, 1992...but...can you see anything wrong with the picture below?

Joseph Cornell was not an Abstract Expressionist, was he? Perhaps you agree with Waldman that he belongs in that category. She claims his works from the 1950s 'parallel the interests of the Abstract Expressionist painters' due to the 'painterly interiors' and 'paint...often layered, some of it intentionally chipped or left peeling'. OK, but I think it's stretching things a bit to place him in a chapter called Abstract Expressionism. He belongs more in the Surrealism chapter, surely. His work was not 'abstract', not did it demonstrate expressionistic tendencies. This fault aside, it's a good book.

Essential Art Books - Part 2

 

Yes, inevitably, books on typewriter art/concrete poetry. 

Typewriter Art: A Modern Anthology - Barrie Tullett (2014)

This one's creeping up in price so it's best to buy one as soon as you can. It's the best contemporary coverage of typewriter art, not just because it's well designed and written but because it contains interviews with exponents old and new. 

Concerning Concrete Poetry - Bob Cobbing and Peter Mayer (1978/2014) 

Probably the most interesting book on concrete poetry, consisting as it does of statements, manifestos and musings on both concrete and sound poetry, their meaning(s) and evolution. This facsimile edition naturally has that vintage/raw appearance/appeal. Unfortunately, it's now rather pricey but I got mine before it neared it's current values. You can see a few pages here.

The Art of Typewriting - Marvin and Ruth Sackner (2015)

The best book, visually, on typewriter art. Large format and a good, selective biographical section in the back with further examples of the artists' work. This one is very affordable and essential if you're interested in what has been done by hitting keys (and yes, applying other media too). 

Archigram - The Book / An Archigram Video

'It was intended as a poetic provocation to all the content of the architectural discourse...introducing words, music, drawings, film, fashion.' - Archigram

Architecture as...fantasy? As fantastical science-fictional buildings and cityscapes? But we've seen countless artistic visions of future cities in sci-fi magazines and on book covers...so what? But Archigram went further - they had the plans. 

Schemers and dreamers, yes, but Archigram drew, photographed and collaged their ideas and they can be seen in this book - The Book, the best and only book you need on these architectural theoreticians. Wait though, in case the idea of 'theory' puts you off, fear not, their schemes are such that they are a visual delight...

...a dash of situationism and a splash of Pop art sparked, to some degree, by the famous This Is Tomorrow exhibition...'Always definitively incomplete', as they say in the text accompanying the Nottingham shopping viaduct project. Incomplete echoes the idea of the disposable culture so many were discussing as manufacturing and materials showered the post-WW2 world with all manner of goods...an incomplete satisfaction, perhaps? The instantaneous consumer hit so quickly fading and needing to be found again and again. 

Yet Archigram were no socialist, utopian idealists against shallow consumerism, Like so many Pop artists they cast enthusiastic eyes over the array of products, from film to pulp fiction and domestic goods and were inspired. The Book even contains a pop-up page...

...or should that be Pop-up?

Archigram seemed to exist on the cool outer edges of Swinging London's hot epicentre....outsiders looking in and visualising what they saw, or rather, offering an alternate vision because despite all that was happening in London during the 60s the collective was able to somehow mirror, without directly engaging in, The Scene. Such is my impression, although it's quite possible some of them were in contact with the scenesters.

The final photo may 'say it all' in terms of Cool sophistication combined with Pop domestic products. A living city survival kit indeed! Note the inclusion of both Ornette Coleman and Coltrane. Sunglasses, a gun, a pack of cigarettes and, of course, a copy of Playboy. All that a penthouse-dwelling urbanite needs to survive. This urbane hipster would, however, be living in an Archigram-designed pod in a mobile city.

Finally, I found this fantastic short film, made in 1967 and perfectly capturing the spirit of Archigram and the times...

 

Vispo: My Thoughts / Book: Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music / Music: Ikarie XB​-​1 by Zdeněk Liška

RTomens, 2023

I'm on a roll(er)! No,  I mean, the roller was on the paper, meaning I cleaned the black ink off the roller and ran it over a new red ink pad - one sweep downwards and build the typing around it. hey - that's vispo, folks! Someone replied on Twitter, claiming to be able to 'see my thoughts', presumably my thinking whilst creating My Thoughts.  Well, mebbe he could, but only superficially and through subjective 'reading', presumably. As I said in response, it's a good thing he couldn't see all my thoughts - they're mostly marked 'Private - KEEP OUT'. 

Who would want my thoughts anyway? Really. I'm no wise man, not am I especially witty....

(I know, I've just negated the validity of this blog - dammit)

Besides, our written thoughts are merely the cleaned-up, edited versions of the kaleidoscopic mess in our heads, aren't they? Funny as it sounds I don't think too much when making art, typewriter art or whatever. Yes, I'm a spontaneous, improvising, crazy man! I'm the Charlie Parker of visual poetry! I wish. Minus the drugs and...OK...the talent. 

Talking of Bird and all that Jazz, I recently bought Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music. First class design job, although there seems to be no credit for whoever did it - love the embossed cover and font used for the essays. Looking at the cover, I wondered how many people would get who Basquiat was referring to and the title. When asked about his favourite music, though, he apparently just said 'Miles Davis'. Well, I would say that too if the question related to Jazz. Otherwise, their are too many artists to consider.

My latest favourite album, for instance, is Ikarie XB​-​1 by Zdeněk Liška on Finders Keepers. You can also listen here if you don't like/have Spotify. For me it represents the best in electronic/acoustic space age soundtracks combing Pop and avant-garde ideas.

Book: RUHUMAN: The Typewriter Art of Keith Armstrong / Vispo: Hypersensitivity to certain final conditions

 

I was recently sent RUHUMAN: The Typewriter Art of Keith Armstrong (a fair exchange is no robbery!) and damned fine it is too. Like me and hundreds of other typewriter artists Armstrong worked solely for the love of his art rather than thinking it would 'get him anywhere' - but where can concrete/visual poetry get anyone? Since when did it open gallery doors? Since the late-60s and early-70s - maybe? If the art of typing had its moment, it was brief, but I'm no historian, just a typist, working not so far from where Armstrong did on the Euston Road, North London. 

RUHUMAN is packed with great examples of the art, the variety of possible approaches being evident here, at least, if not in most singular portfolios. As with any other artform there's a trap, the one of repetition in style. One person's trap is, after all, another's cosy home. Armstrong utilises colour and various forms from 'formal' to precise overtyping and more freeform expression, very much in the tradition (?) of DHS. Barrie Tullett co-edited the book (along with Tom Gill) and created the faultless design. You may be familiar with his anthology, which is also highly recommended.

*

RTomens, 2023

This the latest piece I made, this morning. 

And here is my latest booklet, printed and designed by Paper View in Portugal. You can see some pages and buy it from them here. It was actually published late last year and sent to me then but a postal worker who happened to be a fan of typewriter art must have sensed what was in the package and kept it because it didn't arrive, so another batch had to be sent. To my delight paper View did an excellent job on the design. It's on textured paper and I like the rounded edges. 

Tom Phillips R.I.P.

Tom Phillips passed away recently so I thought I'd post a few pics of pages from his legendary A Humument project. These are my copies, obviously. There's one that I don't have and a couple more on the way. He always added to each new version so they're all worth getting. You can read all about the project on his site so I won't say much more. 

You can find better images on the web...so I don't know why I posted these....except as an acknowledgment, I suppose....that and the fact that I wanted something easy to do whilst my brain is slowly awakened by a coffee before I start making my own art. Here's an altered page I made a couple of days ago...