A PRESTIGIOUS art prize is set to be launched in Edinburgh schools in honour of world-renowned artist Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.
It is hoped that senior high school pupils across the city will compete for the annual award.
Supporters believe it would be the most fitting way to remember the Leith-born artist, who died aged 81 in April.
Paolozzi was an important figure i
n modern art, being widely regarded as the founder of the Pop Art movement. A number of his works can be seen in the city, including a giant sculpture of a foot outside St Mary’s Cathedral at the top of Leith Walk.
Edinburgh Lib Dem councillor Paul Edie is to float his school prize idea to colleagues this week. He has tabled a motion at this Thursday’s council meeting to ask the education department, now known as Children and Families, to look into the proposal.
Councillor Edie said he was keen to celebrate the "magnificent contribution Sir Eduardo made to modern art during his lifetime".
Director of Children and Families Roy Jobson will be asked to investigate setting up a "Paolozzi Prize for Art".
"Paolozzi was one of the world’s top sculptors, he was one of the most significant artists of the 20th century and he was one of our own," Cllr Edie said.
"I am suggesting that we set up a prize which would, ideally, be something fairly prestigious, for older students studying for their Highers. It would certainly be something which would look good on their university applications, and it would also raise the profile of the artist in schools.
"We should do something other than build a statue in his memory, as there are already some of his sculptors in the city. This would be a nice, constructive way of remembering a truly great artist, a remarkable Edinburgher."
Arts impresario Richard Demarco, a lifelong friend of Paolozzi, welcomed the proposal.
However, he wants any award to be given on the condition that the winner would use any prize money to find out more about the painter and sculptor.
Mr Demarco said that an award would also be the ideal way for pupils to study Paolozzi’s life.
He said: "I think that it is a brilliant idea. We should make sure that entrants have to write an essay and study his life in some way, as well as completing a piece of artwork which would sum up what he represented."
Education leader Cllr Rev Ewan Aitken said the idea was fitting and interesting, but it would have to looked at it in more detail. "Paolozzi is the kind of person we should be celebrating. he was a very significant Leith artist, who was one of our own," he said.
Cllr Aitken added: "I think that it is a good idea, but these things need to be worked upon."
Other tributes to Paolozzi are in the pipeline across the Capital.
The Royal Scottish Academy is planning to hold a major arts show as a tribute to him at its annual exhibition this August, while a public memorial service is also being planned for later this year.
Sculptor rose from humble beginningsEDUARDO Paolozzi went a long way from his humble beginnings as the Leith son of Italian immigrants.
Born in Crown Place in March 1924, it was his schooling at the former Holy Cross High that set him on the path to glory in the art world.
He later studied at the Edinburgh College of Art, London’s St Martin’s School of Art and eventually the Slade School of Fine Art.
A series of major public works he created are to be seen in the UK and abroad, including a mosaic decoration at Tottenham Court Road Underground Station in London.
But it is the giant sculpture of a foot which was the most personal to him. It stands outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, the church he had attended as a boy.
He became known as a pioneer of Pop Art in 1952, when he exhibited collages made up of photos of consumer images such as Coca Cola bottles and washing machines.
In 1986 he was appointed Queen’s Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland and was knighted in 1989. Two years later, he was appointed Cavaliere Ufficiale, Ordine al Merito, in Italy, and he also won many other honours and distinctions.
He was confined to a wheelchair in 2001 by an illness that also left him suffering brain damage.
