'Making reliefs encapsulates all that is wonderful in sculpture and operates that part of the senses that painting, no matter how grand, cannot possibly touch' (Eduardo Paolozzi, 1980). In this sentence Paolozzi summarises not only the enduring role played by relief in the history of sculpture, but also why it has such a hold on the imagination of the viewer. As an artist who regularly worked in two dimensions as well as three, relief was arguably the sculptural medium Paolozzi liked and understood best of all, and one to which he returned at all stages of his career, for fine art sculpture in metal, wood and plaster, as well as for the embellishment of architecture in the form of decorative panels and doors. This early relief, made at the outset of Paolozzi's career, contains the seeds of much that would besubsequently developed in his professional life. Paolozzi has described how 'the first objects he made in a small room in the rue Visconti (in Paris in 1947-8) were modelled from clay - small reliefs modelled in the negative partly through reasons of poverty but really a continuation of a working method evolved in the sculpture school at the Slade - at the time a necessity for directness' (1978). The fruits of these experiences, consisting of twelve drawings and twelve reliefs, were shown in the exhibition Eduardo Paolozzi - Drawings and Bas-Reliefs at the Mayor Gallery in May 1949. The imagery of the reliefs, which consisted of marine life and plant forms, were influenced by the reliefs Picasso made at Boisgeloup in the early 1930s, and relate to the first independent free standing table sculptures Paolozzi developed in Paris, such as Growth and Icarus. The abstract language of the present relief shows the interest Paolozzi had in Paris for Klee, as well as for ancient Assyrian sculpture discovered in the British Museum. It was almost certainly made and fired at the Central School of Art in 1949-50, where on his return from Paris Paolozzi became a part-time teacher of textiles. At about the same time he also made a series of twelve similar bas-reliefs which were cast in concrete for the architect Jane Drew (Private Collection); and in 1951 a related terracotta was bought by the National Gallery of South Australia. We are grate to Robin Spencer, author of the forthcoming Eduardo Paolozzi catalogue raisonné, for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist