“Eduardo Paolozzi: Horizons of Expectations”

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Pop Art didn't emerge in the United States, but rather in England, thanks to a cadre of artists based around London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). Starting in the late 1940s, the Independent Group, as they called themselves, began experimenting with collages based on images culled from advertising, comic books and movie magazines. In 1956, they mounted “This Is Tomorrow,” at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, an installation-cum-exhibition that's now considered a precursor to Pop Art. Paolozzi was a founder of the IG, but while he helped to foment the ideas behind “This Is Tomorrow,” his work—a paradoxical mix of glowering sculptures and vibrant screen-prints—veered into Brutalism and machine aesthetics. Most interestingly, he tried to capture the incessant flow of imagery and information in a post-industrial society, anticipating the Internet; certainly, that case can be made for the sculptures and prints in this show.