This is one of the most famous pieces of Pop Art in the world which is “I Was a Rich Man’s Plaything”. This artwork was put together by Eduardo Paolozzi in 1947 and is currently displayed at the Tate Gallery, in London. The original collage was one of ten from Paolozzi's "BUNK!" series, compiled from 1941 to 1952, that were exhibited in the Paolozzi retrospective held at the Tate Gallery in 1971.
Eduardo Paolozzi was born in 1924 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was the eldest son of Italian immigrants. In June of 1940, when Italy declared war on the United Kingdom, Paolozzi was interned for three months (along with a lot of other Italian men in Britain). Three years later, Paolozzi studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and then at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London from 1944 to 1947, and after that he worked in Paris. There he obtained a lot of influences from other Surrealist artists that can be very visible in his work. After that he returned to London and that’s when his interest for collages starts to surface. He was a founder of the Independent Group in 1952, which is considered as the precursor to the late Pop Art movements. His artworks were part of a collection called “Bunk” and here are some of them.
Pop Art was perhaps one of the most significant art movements of the 20th century, being most relevant from the 1950’s to the 1970’s.
The Independent Group wanted to challenge the art world and they were more interested in an intermingling of the popular culture and the visual arts in order to make art more inclusive and that could have mass appeal. To do so they started to blend elements of magazines, newspapers, ads and comic stripes, through collages, while keeping traditional painting techniques.
Some of the main characteristics are: the use of recognizable imagery: Pop art utilized images and icons from popular media and products; The use of vibrant and bright colors such as red, yellow, and blue; Irony and satire: Humor was one of the main components of Pop art as the artists used the subject matter to make a statement about current events and challenge the status quo. The use of innovative techniques: Many Pop artists engaged in printmaking processes, which helped them to quickly reproduce images in large quantities. Mixed media and collage: Pop artists often blended materials and utilized a variety of different types of media.
Eduardo’s collage I was a Rich Man's Plaything is considered the earliest standard bearer representing Pop Art. This was made from cuttings from American magazines and advertisements, mounted on card. This work was the first to include the word "pop" in its design, years before coined the term "pop art". It takes its title from words printed on the cover of the magazine Intimate Confessions. Over that, Paolozzi pasted images of a gun projecting the word "pop" cut from the packaging of a toy pop gun, a cherry with a slice of cherry pie, and a "Real Gold" logo from a brand of California lemon juice. Also mounted on the card is an image of a Lockheed Hudson or Lockheed Ventura bomber taken from some magazines that he was given by American ex-servicemen, and part of a Coca-Cola advertisement that he acquired in London.
