Masterclass with Paolozzi- 1996

Were you on the Masterclass with Eduardo Paolozzi in 1996?

Would you like to contribute to a book about the 10 days we spent with him?

If so contact me – Ann Shaw-

 email- annshaw@mac.com, or text/mobile-07543 671260 or through my web-site: www.annshaw.co.uk

Meanwhile I am putting up extracts from my own diary with him.

  Day One:
  We are just digesting this when a tired, heavy-built old man, looking more like a blacksmith, wanders in.

 It’s Paolozzi.

“I have been up since 5 o clock this morning,” he growls sitting in the empty seat next to me.

   Geraldine rushes to get him a cup of coffee. He takes it without a word of thanks.  “I was wondering what you had in mind for our students.” Geraldine is the epitome of Edinburgh politeness.

   Paolozzi snarls, without bothering to look at her: “I am not going to be pushed around by you or anybody."

   An uneasy silence falls over the café. “Get back to the studio. I will see you in five minutes.”

   We shuffle to our feet and walk back. Nobody speaks.

A few minutes later he joins us and without any social niceties launches straight into a history of 20^th century art, until he sees Geraldine lurking in a corner.

 “ Surrealism was a major force…” he stops. “You can get back to your office and do some more faxes, or whatever it is that you do.”

   Geraldine leaves trying to make a joke of her dismissal: “I know when I’m not wanted.”

   My throat is dry. I swallow. What have I let myself in for? There are no chairs. We stand for one hour while Paolozzi launches into a lecture on modem art.

Masterclass with Paolozzi- 1996

Were you on the Masterclass with Eduardo Paolozzi in 1996?

Would you like to contribute to a book about the 10 days we spent with him?

If so contact me – Ann Shaw-

 email- annshaw@mac.com, or text/mobile-07543 671260 or through my web-site: www.annshaw.co.uk

Meanwhile I am putting up extracts from my own diary with him.

"Paolozzi is all about the unexpected - as anyone brave enough to sign up for his Masterclass in Edinburgh this summer will quickly discover” – art critic Iain Gale. The Independent

Day One:

“You will learn by a process of osmosis”

   We stand in the big, white, empty sculpture studio of Edinburgh College of Art waiting for Paolozzi, the grand old man of British sculpture, with whom we are going to work with over the next ten days.

We’re a mixed bunch from professional artists and art students to a retired teacher, doctor, surgeon and a collection of “others”.

I fall into the “others” category – a journalist about to give up work on the Glasgow Herald to go as a mature student to Glasgow School of Art. Am I making a mistake? Will I regret it?

But where is Paolozzi? It’s 9.30 and Geraldine Prince, art historian and course arrives. “His flight from Paris has been delayed. I suggest you all go and have a coffee.”

   En route to the café I see a poster advertising “Masterclass with Paolozzi” and a student scribbled on it:” Be afraid…be very afraid.”

   We sit and drink coffee. “Do you think he is as ferocious as his reputation says,” I ask a bearded young man next to me.” He nods.

  Geraldine hands us a programme for the next ten days with the caveat: “He may well tear all this up once he sees it”. (He does).

Were you on the Masterclass with Eduardo Paolozzi in 1996?

Would you like to contribute to a book about the 10 days we spent with him?

If so contact me – Ann Shaw-

 email- annshaw@mac.com, or text/mobile-07543 671260 or through my web-site: www.annshaw.co.uk

“What is the purpose of a Masterclass?”

I asked Eduardo Paolozzi as we sat around the table over coffee in the café of Edinburgh College of Art.

His reply is unexpected.

“ To bring you lot together, so that you can learn from each other.”

Well, that was in 1996. 

  What did we learn in our 10-day Masterclass with him and how has it influenced our work?

He asked us all to keep a diary and the other day I found mine and re-read it and I was struck by how prescient his views were and relevant to today’s fast changing world.

Like a canary in the cage, though I would hesitate to compare Paolozzi to a canary- more like a big, solid, lumbering blacksmith, he had sensed the future.

So the purpose of this blog is to try and contact all those other students who were with me to see if we can share again those experiences and what we learnt as artists.

How many others have still got their diaries?

I had intended to publish mine as an e-book until I realised how much stronger it would be if I could have the input from other students who were on that Masterclass with me.

Where are you all now?  Fortunately Geraldine Prince, art historian and course organiser, gave us a list of all participants and thanks to the internet I am able to locate quite a few from the class.

Whether they want to share those experiences of nearly twenty years ago is another matter.

So lets see what happens…

Hopefully others will come forward and their writings and work will be shared both on this blog and subsequent book.