Catalogue Raisonné. Astronaut I
The Major Periods
1962 – 1965: Early Pop Paintings
As one of the original wave of Pop artists Gerald Laing produced some of the most significant works of the British Pop movement. His paintings reproduced images of popular heroes such as starlets, film stars, drag racers, astronauts and skydivers. His 1962 portrait of Brigitte Bardot is an iconic work of the period and regularly features in major Pop retrospectives alongside Lincoln Convertible from 1964, a commemoration of the assassination of JFK.
1965 – 1970: Utopian Abstract Sculpture
From 1965 Gerald Laing's painting evolved into abstract sculptures using the techniques and materials of car customisation - lacquering, spray-painting and chrome-plating on metal.
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1970 – 1973: Sculpture In The Landscape
A move from New York to the Highlands of Scotland in 1970 saw Gerald Laing's sculpture respond to the beauty, roughness and power of the surrounding landscape.
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1972 – 2010: Public Sculpture
Public sculptures include the the Bank Station Dragons; the Rugby Sculptures at Twickenham Stadium; the Cricketer at Lords; the Highland Clearances Memorial in Helmsdale, Sutherland and Axis Mundi in Edinburgh.
1973 – 1980: Galina Series
Inspired by the figurative sculpture of the First World War Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner, in 1973 Gerald Laing began to model in clay and cast in bronze. The Galina Series and associated sculptures were his first works from this period.
1982 – 2007: Portrait Heads
Gerald Laing's portrait work includes heads and reliefs of Luciano Pavarotti, Andy Warhol, Paul Getty and Sam Wanamaker.
2002 – 2005: War Paintings
The Iraq war and the publication of images of torture at Abu Ghraib prison drew Gerald Laing back to painting for the first time in over three decades. The War Paintings series sees the starlets and all-American heroes of his early paintings take on new, more sinister roles.
2004 – 2011: New Paintings
Returning to the style and subject matter of his early pop art paintings, Gerald Laing's latest paintings feature media images of contemporary celebrities including Amy Winehouse and Kate Moss.
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Astronaut I
Catalogue No. 25
Artist's CR 022
1963
London
Oil and silver spray paint on canvas
72 x 64 inches / 183 x 163 cm
Collection: Wolverhampton Art Gallery
- (Galerie Iris Clert)
- Sold at auction by Piasa, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris, 20 October 2010, Lot 225
- Private collection
- Collection of Wolverhampton Art Gallery
This painting was virtually a single quarter from Four Events [in the Experience of an Astronaut] with a coloured lower section added to imply pulsation, either of a mechanical or an organic nature. The pulsation is conveyed in an optical idiom, using red and silver converging in a zig-zag line. As it was a ‘follow-up’ painting after Four Events, a more methodical approach was possible, and I used sprayed silver paint (from an aerosol can) for the first time.
'Aspen Notebook', Gerald Laing, unpublished manuscript, 1966