Catalogue Raisonné. Ecce Domina
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.
View all Sculpture In The Landscape
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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Ecce Domina
Catalogue No. 395
Artist's CR 371
Summer, 1977
Kinkell
Bronze
Edition of 3
35 x 22 x15 inches / 89 x 56 x38 cm
- An Exhibition of Sculpture by Gerald Laing at the Edinburgh Festival 1978, Gladstone Court, Edinburgh, 1978
- Gerald Laing: Bronze Sculpture, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, 1979
- Gerald Laing: Sculpture, Bacardi Art Gallery, Miami, 1982
- An Exhibition of the Hamburg Triptych, 27–29 Blenheim Gardens, London, 1982
- Gerald Laing, 'Gerald Laing', Ambit76, 1976
- An Exhibition of Sculpture by Gerald Laing at the Edinburgh Festival 1978, exhibition catalogue, Gladstone Court, 1978
- Gerald Laing: A Retrospective 1963–1993, exhibition catalogue, The Fruitmarket Gallery, 1993
- Gerald Laing, 'Gerald Laing: An Autobiography', unpublished manuscript, 2011
The Human Condition and Ecce Domina show a more classical spirit in the fullness and harmony of the figure and its self-contained nature in space. Even the separation of the arms from the body is avoided - Ecce Domina has one arm attached to her side, while in The Human Condition both arms and head are encased… It remains to be seen whether Laing has reached a resting-point in The Human Condition at which he may develop its generalizing character into true classicism.
An Exhibition of Sculpture by Gerald Laing at the Edinburgh Festival 1978, Douglas Hall, exhibition catalogue, Gladstone Court, Edinburgh, 1978
A celebration of the triumph of ideal feminine physical beauty. Some people have accused me of misogyny in respect of this work; the first to do so was the Minister of Holyrood Kirk in Edinburgh, who saw it at my exhibition at the 1978 Edinburgh Festival. Carrying a pastoral crook, he swept into the makeshift gallery and announced to the young woman whom I had hired to supervise the exhibition that I was a woman-hater, because I exposed women’s bodies and covered their heads. He failed to perceive that the subject was the power of the female form, which I did not wish to particularise by giving the figure a personal identity. When I heard of his reaction I went down to the Kirk to look for him, but fortunately he was not at home. A clue to the meaning of the sculpture is that I intended it to be the female equivalent of ‘Ecce Homo’ (Behold the Man), which would have been ‘Ecce Femina’; but this has untidy connotations. It was Antonia Fraser who suggested ‘Ecce Domina’ instead - ‘Behold the Lady’.
An Exhibition of Sculpture by Gerald Laing at the Edinburgh Festival 1978, Douglas Hall, exhibition catalogue, Gladstone Court, Edinburgh, 1978