London’s Public Art: Head of Oscar Wilde, SW3
In 1998, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi was commissioned to produce a large sculpture of Oscar Wilde for Chelsea, and in 2024, it’s finally been delivered.
The lengthy delay was partly because of the artist’s death in 2005, and various other priorities got in the way. However, to coincide with Paolozzi’s centenary and Wilde’s 170th birthday, a postumous casting of the model created for the sculpture was commissioned, and the artwork is now, at very long last, on public display.
The location, on a former graveyard, caused a few problems but was chosen because it’s close to where Oscar Wilde lived for much of his life.
The Head of Oscar Wilde was cast at the Pangolin Foundry, Paolozzi’s original choice, with the creation process overseen by one of Paolozzi’s past assistants. As an artwork, it’s fair to say that it’s well, very Paolozzi – with his classic design of a person being sliced into with thick slabs that bisect the face and break it up.
Dotted around the base is a long freeze of lettering, which I will admit to being unable to extract any meaning from. They are probably an anagram of something, but the nearby explanatory sign doesn’t explain that aspect of the sculpture.
However, after a very long gestation, Oscar Wilde’s head has finally landed in Chelsea – in Dovehouse Green on the King’s Road.
The sculpture was funded through s106 development monies from the area and NCIL.
There’s another one { Not a Paolozzi! } just outside one of the N-side-of-the Strand exits from Charing Cross station .. in Adelaide Street.
There is some interesting history here. Paolozzi submitted his statue for a competition that the other statue – Maggi Hambling’s “Conversation with Oscar Wilde” – won. Probably rightly.
Some people really don’t like Paolozzi’s version, but it was commissioned anyway, and now we have both in London.
See https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/sep/21/oscar-wilde-grandson-condemns-new-london-sculpture
The exquisite and witty Maggi Hambling memorial has been scandalously treated. The point of its location is that Oscar is gazing at the Strand – full of resonance for him. But for some years he has gazed at the back of a hot dog stall which blocks the view of the statuary from the Strand (and vice versa). This is a major modern work, and the planning consent for the stall a glaringly outrageous example of philistinism at a civic level in the capital city. Perhaps the Paolozzi might provide some impetus for a new protest about how the Hambling has been officially rubbished – a fate awaiting it too, potentially.
When are they going to straighten him up… he seems to be lying on his side at the moment.
(I don’t know much about art but I know what I don’t like)