Catalogue Raisonné. Pyramid Folly
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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Pyramid Folly
Catalogue No. 295
Artist's CR 283
1972
Kinkell
Stonework rendered, plastered and painted
192 inches / 488 cm , height
Collection: Private collection
- Gerald Laing, Kinkell: The Reconstruction of a Scottish Castle, Latimer New Dimensions (1st edition 1974) and Ardullie House (2nd edition 1984), London (1974) and Dingwall (1984), 1974
- Gerald Laing: A Retrospective 1963–1993, exhibition catalogue, The Fruitmarket Gallery, 1993
- Gerald Laing, 'Gerald Laing: An Autobiography', unpublished manuscript, 2011
Laing built this large pyramid, with inside facing seats, using stone from an eighteenth-century extension to Kinkell Castle that he had demolished. It contained two facing seats in order that it might ‘act as a machine for rejuvenation (there is a belief held by many people that meat will not corrupt and razor blades will become sharp if they are kept inside a pyramid)’ (‘Gerald Laing: An Autobiography’, unpublished manuscript, 2011, ch.35), somewhat in the manner of Wilhelm Reich’s orgone accumulators.
Image 1 shows Pyramid Folly covered in foliage in 2015. Image 2 shows Pyramid Folly newly built in 1972.