Paolozzi was born in Scotland, to Italian parents. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art, 1943, and Slade School of Fine Art, 1944-7. A hugely energetic and prolific artist, Paolozzi is highly regarded as one of the fathers of the British Pop Art movement. He taught widely throughout his career and received a number of important public commissions, memorably for Tottenham Court underground station, and for the doors of The Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow.

Paolozzi’s work has been exhibited internationally. The Tate Gallery held a retrospective in 1971, and he had a Seventieth birthday show at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1994. In 2004 The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art held a show ‘Paolozzi at 80.’