Dimensions: support: 718 x 571 mm
Copyright: © The Estate of Eduardo Paolozzi | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Eduardo Paolozzi’s "Man’s Head." Looking at this frenetic drawing, I immediately feel a sense of anxiety. What do you make of the chaotic lines and fragmented features? Curator: The chaos is precisely the point! Paolozzi, a master of post-war angst, beautifully captures the fractured psyche of the modern human. The lines feel like exposed nerves, don't they? Do you see how the head is barely contained within its painted outline? Editor: I do. It's like the identity is struggling to hold itself together. Curator: Exactly! Perhaps he's suggesting the pressure of societal expectations, or the bombardment of information we experience daily. It's unsettling, yes, but profoundly human. I'm left wondering, what would it feel like to meet the person in this portrait? Editor: I see what you mean. It definitely makes me consider the psychological impact of modern life in a new way.
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This drawing and the sculpture shown nearby date from early in Paolozzi's career. The drawing was made in London where Paolozzi had settled after a formative stay in Paris from 1947-9. There he had been drawn particularly to Surrealism with its rejection of conventional ideas of beauty, and its aim to make art directly from 'the depths of the mind'. In painting and drawing, this aim was often achieved by employing a free and improvisatory approach which would encourage a direct statement of inner feelings. The results, as here, were often akin to graffiti, or the art of the insane, or to 'primitive' or naive art. All of these were admired by artists such as Paolozzi for their freedom and directness of expression. Gallery label, September 2004
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