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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.
View all Utopian Abstract Sculpture
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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Catalogue No. 54
Artist's CR 052
1964
New York
Oil on irregular, shaped canvas
39 x 28 inches / 99 x 71 cm
Collection: Private collection
- Gerald Laing Prints, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 1964
- Four Young Artists, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 1964
- 1971: Gerald Laing, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 1971
- Gerald Laing: A Retrospective 1963–1993, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 1993
- Gerald Laing: From 1963 to the Present, Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh, 2004
- Space, Speed, Sex: Works from the early 1960s by Gerald Laing, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, London, 2006
- Gerald Laing 1936–2011: A Retrospective, The Fine Art Society, London, 2016
- Four Young Artists, exhibition catalogue, Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1964
- Gerald Laing and Alasdair Hamilton, 1971: Gerald Laing, exhibition catalogue, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 1971
- Gerald Laing: A Retrospective 1963–1993, exhibition catalogue, The Fruitmarket Gallery, 1993
- Space, Speed, Sex: Works from the early 1960s by Gerald Laing, exhibition catalogue, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, 2006
- Gerald Laing, 'Gerald Laing: An Autobiography', unpublished manuscript, 2011
- Gerald Laing 1936–2011: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, The Fine Art Society, 2016
By shaping the canvases I was able to accentuate their objecthood. By placing, say, a parallelogram on top of a rectangle, I could imply a third dimension for the painting, as though it was folded and protruded into the room. Curved sides suggested undulations in the surface; visual paradoxes began to fascinate me; and the shapes I required for these became so complicated that it was impracticable to make them as you would normal stretchers over which the canvas was stretched.
'Gerald Laing: An Autobiography', Gerald Laing, unpublished manuscript, 2011, ch.20