Of the few British artists who came to international prominence soon after the Second World War, Paolozzi was one of the most inventive, prolific and various. Chiefly a sculptor (and one of the first to react against the all-pervading influence of Henry Moore), he was also a highly original printmaker some of whose collage-based silkscreened images are among the finest examples of pop art - the style he was instrumental in shaping. The work Head is representative of his production of roughly cast bronze heads with their surface encrusted with the impressions of nuts, bolts, bits of toys, and other elements, often revealing his interest in modern machinery. By turns horrifying, pathetic and comically ramshackle, these figures seemed to allude to the results of nuclear destruction, or to reflect the existential anxiety current throughout Europe. Paolozzi was made a CBE in 1968, an RA in 1979, and a knight in 1989. Paolozzi's works are included in major public collections worldwide, including the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.