PAOLOZZI, Eduardo, As Is When [exhibition catalogue] (Editions Alecto, London), [1965] [first edition]

146 x 208mm; solander box with 12 offset lithographs and 5 loose catalogue sheets with a loose card cover [one catalogue sheet duplicated]

Scarce fugitive catalogue for Paolozzi’s series of Wittgensteinian screenprints, reproduced here in miniature. For the exhibition at Editions Alecto, 4 May–5 June 1965. One of the earliest artistic engagements with Wittgenstein’s life and ideas.

Paolozzi became interested in Wittgenstein through biographical anecdotes – the outsider, the austere thinker – but these works show a deep appreciation of Wittgenstein’s work, with Paolozzi quoting widely from Wittgenstein’s writings and making particular use of the image of a man apart from the world who was nevertheless a soldier, a traveller, teacher and – most of all, lover of ‘low’ culture.

Good condition: box worn as usual, somewhat squashed, with the paper peeling on one side; internal contents fine.