Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, R.A. (1924-2005)

'This is what imposes, in addition to a formal metamorphosis, a material metamorphosis on all my materials. In the finished casting the original objets trouves are no longer present at all, as they are in the Dada and Surrealist compositions of this kind. They survive in my sculptures as ghosts of forms that still haunt the bronze, details of its surface or its actual structure'
(E. Roditi, Dialogues on Art, London, 1960, p. 162).

In 1954 Paolozzi set up a bronze furnace in Dorothy Morland's garden in Hampstead and from 1954-57 cast his own bronzes with the help of Morland's son, Francis. Using the lost-wax method Paolozzi cast a number of small figure pieces reminiscent of his French contemporary, Jean Dubuffet who he had met while living in Paris in the late 1940s. The Pier Art Centre have a similar piece to the present work which was gifted by Paolozzi to Margaret Gardiner.