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Editor at Large

The notion of culture changed

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A couple of weeks back I was being pulled by the dog towards the Water of Leith when I spied a crowd at the bus stop on Henderson Street. On spotting the towering figure of Tim Bell, I decided to take a shufti and find out what was going on. It transpired this was the unveiling of a new Eduardo Paolozzi mural to replace the old one, which had seen better days after surviving a decade of Scottish weather.

I asked Tim “how can you unveil something that hasn’t been veiled?” He regarded me with that beetle-browed look he has and said something along the lines of “stop playing silly buggers!”

So I sloped off to chat with Callum from the Malt & Hops, who gave me the scoop I wanted: A few lairy lads had passed the mural earlier and assumed the image to be Mikael Gorbachov. They returned later to add a hammer & sickle to Paolozzi’s forehead - gold stars all round for your general knowledge guys!

Artist Halla Groves-Raines, the compere John Russell & coordinator Kristín Hannesdóttir enter pavement left. John greets us and then sets off on a wee guide to what we are seeing, and its’ historical context.

“I knew Paolozzi well - among friends he was called Eddy - and this new mural, commissioned by the Friends of the Water of Leith Basins, coincides with the centenary of his birth.

“His family had a café/ice cream shop on Leith Walk before moving it just around the corner to Albert Street. “

Editor interrupts: Curiously, when the first mural went up here in 2014, they discovered an old ice cream shop behind the boards… it’s still there now.

“The mural will of course remain a portrait of Eduardo Paolozzi, only this time as an older man, standing in front of Leith docks. With many recognisable Leith landmarks treated to the pop art stylings seen in much of his work. (Am I seeing a dazzle ship in there? There's pop art!)

“He left for London at a young age and, as a consequence, he has been more feted internationally than at home.”


Some of Eduardo Paolozzi thought processes

I was a Rich Man’s Plaything (seen here) is a 1947 collage by Eduardo Paolozzi that included an image of a gun firing and a white flag with the word POP! on it bursting from the barrel. It is considered a seminal piece of pop art for its use of juxtaposed found objects and it was the first to include the word "pop" in its design, years before Lawrence Alloway coined the term "pop art".

According to one of those present at the Bunk lecture (5 years after the above!) ‘the very notion of culture changed before one’s eyes’… Already in 1952 it was all there: science fiction, sex, technology, the movies, mass advertising, comics, packaging. The ephemeral had been raised to the level of art; the underrated, undervalued and misunderstood had been proposed as the key to an understanding of contemporary culture.

Numerous large-scale commissions saw his work transform public spaces including Tottenham Court Road underground station. Newton after Blake in the forecourt of the British Library and Manuscript of Monte Cassino , which deliberately points toward Leith.

In 1994, Paolozzi gave the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art a large body of his works, and much of the content of his studio. In 1999 the National Galleries of Scotland opened the Dean Gallery to display this collection including a recreation of Paolozzi's studio.

Paolozzi was knighted in 1989 and by the end of his life was one of the country’s best-known artists. He died in April 2005 and left a major bequest to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. ■

Info: The new mural coincides with the centenary of his birth. Commissioned by the Friends of the Water of Leith Basins, with support from #FOWLb #LeithLate #GRASarchitects

Artist Halla Groves-Raines, the compere John Russell & coordinator Kristín Hannesdóttir enter pavement left

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The moment Pop Art in Britain was born

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