Crossrail has felt like a perpetual fairy tale for some time now. According to the general whisperings, Forest Gate is soon-to-be the new Shoreditch with central London set to be significantly ‘nearer’ to many-a previously lesser known outer suburb, the very notion of which has had estate agents from Southall to Shenfield salivating in their branded Mini Coopers for five years.
Signs of its impending arrival have now become apparent, just down the road from our studio. Transport routes have altered several times around the now numerous entrances to Tottenham Court Road Tube Station, as major building works are carried out and the double-sloped glass mega-entrance is now on full view, ready for countless bodies to hustle their way on and off of the new Elizabeth Line.
It’s all very new, all very intriguing. But for me, there’s also been a period of uncertainty and disappointment. Not because I’ve had to change my cycle route on a number of unexpected occasions, but because the closing of the station and plans for a full overhaul has meant that the brilliant and wholly unique mosaics of 20 th century artist Eduaordo Paolozzi, that adorn the walls of the station, have not only been closed off from view, but have also been seemingly under threat of never being seen again.
Coming across them 10 years ago on one of my first commutes to Material Lab was a joy, and also my first introduction to the prolific man’s work. For anyone who has not seen them, or any of his work before, as well as those who have already revelled in the output of the riotous imagination of an artist who was obsessed with Pop Culture, innovation and pattern and colour combinations, you’re in luck.
Firstly, Transport for London has confirmed that 95% of the murals within the station (and there are a lot!) have been restored, with the rest being shipped off to permanently reside in Edinburgh, the city that Paolozzi studied in. Secondly, Whitechapel Gallery is playing host to a major retrospective of his work until 14 th May.
Paolozzi was influenced by the Surrealist movement and at the fore of the British Pop Art movement that followed in the 1950s and '60s, but as with many of the greats, the body of work he produced across his 50-year career cannot be labelled so reductively. His endless enquiry, irreverence and ability to mix the streams of art and design make him a unique figure in the history of art. The show brings together 250 works ranging from sculpture, collage, drawing, print and textiles.
Here was a man who was not afraid to collaborate, to adapt and to edge towards the functionality of design and materials and processes were often at the heart of both his thinking and making. In 1954 he founded Hammar Ltd Prints with Nigel Henderson, a design company that sought to offer post-war society useful but vibrantly patterned wallpapers, textiles and ceramics.
He also spent a healthy chunk of his career acting as a self-proclaimed ‘collaborative engineer’ with other skilled hands making his metal sculptures. These pieces came during a phase of responding to and working with the new and high-tech shiny material, aluminium, as well as chrome.
But it’s the screen-printed works, a consistent thread throughout the show and his career, that are perhaps still some of the most exciting pieces. At the time they unwaveringly pushed the mechanical and commercial medium firmly into the fine art sphere but it’s the designs themselves, melded collisions of abstract pattern and colour that make them truly unique.
Paolozzi’s contribution to and influence upon the world of art and design is huge and this is in part a reflection upon the artist’s insatiable appetite to try new things, engage with new materials and to position his work in the public rather than just the gallery environment.
His distinctive abstract style leant itself perfectly to creating vibrant pattern as surface reliefs, giving them a whole new dimension, as well as at huge scale, giving them an entirely new feel. In 1986 he produced one of his biggest ever works and now, in 2017, we’ll finally get to see it again.
Get down to Tottenham Court Road Station when it re-opens and Whitechapel Gallery now to see for yourself!
