Amongst the Library’s holdings are copies of all AA publications including exhibition catalogues. This is the cover of a catalogue of an exhibition held at the AA from 24 February to 31 March 1984 on the public sculpture of Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005). It includes his mosaic designs for Tottenham Court Road tube station, which have been in the news recently. In the book, Paolozzi says that the imagery of the mosaics was about connecting tube passengers with life above ground ie. music shops, cameras, saxophones, the British Museum. He writes ‘I also like to think that this is near the Architectural Association and of students coming from their digs past these images every day’. The AA Archives also holds several Paolozzi items including a folio of eleven screen prints, 1969-81, and a large maquette made of plaster and wood for an unidentified project, with engineering shapes including the inside of an electric plug.
Paolozzi was an AA supporter for many years: he was made AA Honorary Member in 1981 and retired from the AA Council in 1986.
Image: Eduardo Paolozzi: private vision – public art. London: Architectural Association, 1984.