Eduardo Paolozzi

Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA (Edinburgh, 7 March 1924 – London, 22 April 2005), was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was the eldest son of Italian immigrants.
Education.
Paolozzi studied at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1943, then moved to London. He was briefly at the St Martin's School of Art in 1944, and then at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London from 1944 to 1947. He lived in Paris from 1947 to 1949. There he met Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, Constantin Brâncuşi, Georges Braque and Fernand Léger. They were a big influence on his later work.
Pop art.
Paolozzi was the founder of the pop art movement. Paolozzi's "I was a Rich Man's Plaything" (1947) is considered the first standard bearer of Pop Art and first to display the word "pop". Paolozzi showed the collage in 1952 as part of his groundbreaking "Bunk!" series at the Independent Group meeting in London.
Assessment.
He was a major figure in the international art sphere. Paolozzi investigated how we fitted into the modern world. He revealed our fragmented civilization through imagination and fantasy.
He was made Her Majesty's Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland in 1986, which he held until his death.