The iconic Piscator sculpture by acclaimed Post War artist Eduardo Paolozzi no longer holds court outside London's Euston Station. It removal seems something of a slight to a true British Pop Art pioneer.
The loss of Euston's Head was sadly as predictable as it was tragic. Paolozzi's sculpture a cut a somewhat forlorn figure for quite sometime, with the artwork detoriating for some years oddly because nobody was willing to claim ownership of it. Commissioned by British Rail in 1980 for the forecourt of Euston Station, the enormous abstracted head, titled 'Piscator' after the German theatre director, was initially hailed as a 20th Century abstract masterpiece.
Made from cast iron with an aluminium finish, the silvered bumps and hollows are said to resemble a human body and head from above, hence its colloquial re-christening as Euston's Head. Perhaps seen as a brutalist lump by some, lacking even the 'curve-appeal' of a Henry Moore, the sculpture nonetheless quickly became a part of the London landscape.
However by the 2010s the silvery sculpture had most definitely seen better days. Whilst the artwork continued to be soiled by London traffic and damaged by rust and worn paint, nobody appeared to want to take responsibility for the forlorn state of Paolozzi's sculpture. The suprising situation had occurred when no organisation wanted to claim ownership of a prominent public sculpture by a pre-eminent 20th Century
artist worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Paolozzi's 'Piscator' most definately became a victim of rail privatisation. The Arts Council of England was later declared the owner of the piece and during the latest redevopment at Euston the decision was made to remove Euston's Head. The station remains sadly headless, and the HS2 redevolpment at Euston is currently on hold.
Eduardo Paolozzi photographed in 1990 for the BBc's Desert Island Discs.
The removal of the 'Piscator' from public display does seem something of a slight to the Pop-Art pioneer Paolozzi. Born in Edinburgh in 1924 to Italian immigrant parents Paolozzi was interned for three months in June 1940 after Italy declared war on the United Kingdom. During his war-time internment at Saughton prison his father, grandfather and uncle, who had also been detained, were among the 446 Italians who drowned when the Arandora Star was sunk by a German U-boat when transferring them to Canada.
Paolozzi did commence his artistic studies during this period, initially at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1943 before completing his studies at the Slade School of Fine Art at the University College of London from 1944 to 1947.
I Was A Rich Man's Plaything (1947).
Paolozzi's first Pop-Art collages began to appear at this point, with his seminal 1947 work, 'I Was A Rich Man's Plaything' being a real standard bearer for the emerging movement, and also being the first to include the word 'pop' within the image. The obssession with bright and bold American imagery by the Pop-Art movement in Post-War London would reverberate within music and fashion in the subsequent decade. Palozzi would be a key member of the Independent Group, who introduced mass culture into debates about high culture and created the found object aesthetic. Paolozzi's 1952 'Bunk' presention which included 'I Was A Rich Man's Plaything' amongst other works by the artist, became the public introduction of this new Independent Group and of the Pop-Art aesthetic in general.
Naturally nobody with an interest in 60s fashion, including Madcap England, can dismiss the impact of Pop-Art on 60s style. Famously Pete Townshend proclaimed in reference to The Who that "We stand for pop art clothes.... We live pop art". It is for this reason that a public work of art by a trailblazer of the Pop-Art movement vanishing from view should be of concern to all retro fashion fans.
It is possible to take some solace from the fact that there are several pieces by Eduardo Paolozzi still on public display in London. The 'Head of Invention' (1989) has graced the Design Museum since 1990 whilst Paolozzi's most famous sculpture 'Newton (After Blake)' (1995) stands outside the British Library. For those fans of bright and colourful Pop-Art style, the Tottenham Court Road Mosaics (1986) maybe more to your taste. This sprawling design was threatened by the Crossrail project but thankfully sense prevailed and the vast majority of tiles were left in place.
A section of Paolozzi's Mosiac at Tottenham Court Road Station.
This year we hit 45 years since Paolozzi's 'Piscator' was first unvieled outside Euston Station. Surely it isn't too much to ask to see the sculpture back in place by the time it turns 50. Euston has already been without its head for far too long.
