Catalogue Raisonné. Chicago
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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Chicago
Catalogue No. 241
Artist's CR 232
1968
New York
Chrome on aluminium and lacquered aluminium, marble base
31 x 28 x4 inches / 79 x 71 x10 cm
Collection: Unknown
- Collection of Richard Feigen Gallery, New York, NY
- Collection of Unknown
Chicago, based upon the image of a large drop of blood, was created for a 1968 exhibition organised by Richard Feigen in the wake of the the violent attacks on demonstrators during the Democratic National Convention by police and the national guard under the command of Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. The exhibition was named ‘Richard J. Daley’ and featured the work of many artists who had recently been part of a city wide artists strike in protest at the violence, including Claes Oldenberg who had himself been beaten by police. Laing was cynical about the exhibition, viewing it more as an act of opportunism than of genuine protest, and came to see the work as ‘too beautiful’ to be an adequate response to events. He describes his subsequent response: ‘In desperation, I pressed my penis in an inkpad and made my first cock print, right in the centre of a large sheet of Arches paper. It seemed the closest I could get to an appropriate response to the whole sorry business.’
'Gerald Laing: An Autobiography', Gerald Laing, unpublished manuscript, 2011, ch.31