Llalla Pallozza…Image fades but memory lingers on
Sir Eduardo Paolozzi ; Richard Davis; Editions Alecto
Description
Subject Matter:
Like many of his contemporaries, Paolozzi used screenprinting as a way to engage with modern mass media's new visual culture. At the same time, the photomechanical process made the work look mechanically manufactured rather than hand made, in the traditional artistic sense. Therefore, when he modified, transformed, and assembled the source image(s), the medium would allow for a more uniform final image.
This print is one of a large series of 50 prints included in the 1970 portfolio, which was a second edition of the an earlier group of slightly larger prints titled "Moonstrips Empire News." While the first series was strictly produced as screenprints, this second series "General Dynamic F.U.N." includes works of photolithography. The themes seen in this portfolio are different in style and subject matter from other Pop works of the period, but engage with the images of a modern mass media, looking beyond just advertising and publicity images. Likewise, the title of the portfolio alludes to the General Dynamics Corporation, who was the manufacturer of the F-111 fighter used during the Vietnam War—the same one referenced in James Rosenquist monumental painting "F-111."
This work plays a similar visual game as Richard Hamilton's iconic Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? (1956). It references the Lollipop in the title and in the candy frame—the origin of the term Llalla Pallozza is an idiomatic phrase meaning something exceptional but by the mid-twentieth century referenced the popular candy. Like the earlier work, Paolozzi's image also juxtaposes domestic products like the television scene with nature, the moth, and the shiny and sexualized bodies of the models. At the same time, the man flexing his muscles, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his female companion are a satrical version of Adam and Eve.
Physical Description:
This color screenprint is separated into two main parts. At the top is a frame made out of unwrapped candy and wrapped candy bars with an image of a man flexing his arm, while a bikini-clad woman peeks from behind the bicep in the frame. The bottom half of the image has two blue and red stars, one on top of the other at the right, and a television to the left. The television has a handle at the top, with an arm coming from the upper candy-frame to hold the handle, and on the screen is a large moth on a red background.
Usage Rights:
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