Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, 1924–2005, BritishPublished by Editions Alecto Ltd.
Title:
Tortured Life
Date:
1965
Materials & Techniques:
Screen print on H.P. J. Green 133 lbs. white wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 38 × 26 inches (96.5 × 66 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Under Copyright
Accession Number:
B1995.3.5
Gallery Label:
The theme of As Is When, Eduardo Paolozzi’s portfolio of twelve screen prints, is the life and work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. In the early 1950s, Paolozzi became fascinated with Wittgenstein’s ideas about language and its relationship to the world, which resonated with his own preoccupations regarding the syntax and vocabulary of image making. While Paolozzi derived the textual component of the images from Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (first English edition, 1922) and Philosophical Investigations (published posthumously in 1953), he variously gathered his visual sources from materials that included dime store wrapping paper, cheap cutout books, and clippings from engineering manuals. The artist’s collages were translated into screen prints by Chris Prater, who hand cut the stencils, a process requiring precision and sensitivity. Resembling spools of film trailing from cameras, the images in this print reflect Paolozzi’s interest in film—as nexus of art and technology—which he shared with Wittgenstein. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
