The ‘Bunk’ collages of Eduardo Paolozzi

 EDUARDO PAOLOZZI’S SERIES of forty-five Bunk collages, made by the artist in Paris and London from around 1947 to 1952, are often considered as prototypical works of Pop art.

These are some examples : 

Evadne in green dimension,  is typical in its presentation of consumer goods, sex symbols and richly toned food advertisements, all cut from American magazines and combined in a dynamic composition.

However, many of the works in the series are characterised by the crudeness with which the source material has been cut and pasted down, incorporating yellowing strips of Sellotape and affixed to sheets of card that appear recycled from previous collages.

But it is also indisput- able that Paolozzi wanted to establish his ‘primogeniture’ in a manner that placed a heavy burden on hindsight. One of the more well-known collages from the series, I was a rich man’s plaything , was annotated by Paolozzi in the Tate cata- logue with ‘The First Use of Pop? Collage, 1947.