Dr Pepper by Eduardo Paolozzi

Dr. Pepper by Eduardo Paolozzi

Dr Pepper
1948
Pop Art
Collage
Collection of the Tate, UK

Created as part of Paolozzi’s ‘Bunk’ series, ‘Dr. Pepper’ was inspired by Surrealist and Dadaist collage works by artists such as Max Ernst and Hannah Hoch. Paolozzi assembled the montage of blossoming American consumerism using colourful images cut out from American magazines. He included cartoon and photographic imagery of attractive women used to market products such as domestic appliances and cars – symbolic of the post-War boom along with ‘Dr. Pepper’ brand soft drink. Rationing was still in place in the UK and the colourful images of a happier existence were alluring to the artist living in a country suffering tough economic conditions and on the verge of bankruptcy.

Eduardo Paolozzi

Eduardo Paolozzi
British Pop Art, Pop Art, Art Brut, and Outsider Art
Born: 7 March 1924, Edinburgh, Scotland
Nationality: Scottish
Died: 22 April 2005, London, UK

A prolific and inventive artist Paolozzi was best known for his marriage of Surrealism’s early principles with brave new elements of popular culture, modern machinery and technology. Raised in the shadows of World War II in a family deeply affected by the divisive nature of a country involved in conflict he developed a lifelong exploration into the ways humans are influenced by external and uncontrollable forces which formed a vast and various body of work vacillated between the darker and lighter consequences of society’s advancements and its so-called progress