In addition to its agro-pastoral culture and traditions (from the Pentri to brigandage, including the Lombards of the medieval era), Viticuso is connected to the world of Pop Art and in particular to Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005), better known as Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. Renowned primarily for his works in sculpture and graphic art, he is considered one of the six founding artists of Pop Art.

His parents, who were from Viticuso, ran an ice cream shop near Edinburgh, but Eduardo would return and spend every summer in his hometown.

After studying at the Edinburgh College of Art, the Saint Martin’s School of Art, and the Slade School of Fine Art at the University of London, he moved to Paris (1947-1949), where he met various artists including Alberto Giacometti. The influence of Giacometti (and other surrealists he encountered in Paris) can be seen in the group of wax sculptures created by Paolozzi in the mid-1950s. Their surfaces, dotted with objects and machine parts, initiated the Paolozzi myth.

Casa Paolozzi a Viticuso nel 1951, fotografata da Nigel Henderson

“I was a Rich Man’s Plaything” del 1947

If Sir Eduardo Paolozzi’s Italian roots and the design elements introduced by Gio Ponti and Bruno Munari influenced his aesthetics and work, the artist himself had a significant impact on the Italian art world, collaborating with Enrico Baj, Mimmo Rotella, and Arnaldo Pomodoro.
Often, his works reflect the fusion of Italian and British elements, contributing to a connection between the two cultures in the world of design.After Paris, he moved back to England, establishing his studio in Chelsea, which was filled with hundreds of found objects, models, sculptures, materials, tools, toys, and stacks of books. A reconstruction of his studio is on display at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.

His 1947 work “I was a Rich Man’s Plaything” is considered the first of Pop Art and the first to feature the word “pop”. Paolozzi exhibited this collage in London in 1952 as part of his groundbreaking “Bunk!” series presentation at the inaugural meeting of the Independent Group, the movement that gave rise to British Pop Art.

In 1954, he co-founded Hammer Prints Limited with Nigel Henderson, a design company that produced wallpaper, textiles, and ceramics. Although he used a wide range of media throughout his career, he became closely associated with sculpture, creating works that combined largely realistic forms with geometric elements (often cubic) and human forms deconstructed in a cubist style.

In the late 1960s, he began contributing to the literary magazine *Ambit*, initiating a lifelong collaboration. In 1968, he was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).

In the 1970s, he ventured into industrial design with a series of 500 pieces of the upscale Suomi tableware by Timo Sarpaneva, which Paolozzi decorated for the Studio Linie of the German porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal. In 1979, he was elected to the Royal Academy, and in 1986, he was appointed Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland, a position he held until his death. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1987 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1989.

In 1994, Paolozzi donated a substantial body of his work and much of the content of his studio to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. In 1999, the National Galleries of Scotland opened the Dean Gallery to display this collection. The gallery features a reconstruction of Paolozzi’s studio, with its contents evoking the original locations in London and Munich, and also houses a Scottish-Italian restaurant, Paolozzi’s Kitchen, created by Heritage Portfolio in tribute to the local artist.

In 2001, Paolozzi suffered a near-fatal stroke, leading to a mistaken report in a magazine claiming he had died. The illness rendered him a wheelchair user, and he passed away in a hospital in London in April 2005.

Research and text by Igor Todisco.

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (in piedi) con la sua famiglia fuori dalla propria casa a Viticuso. Foto di Nigel Henderson