Catalogue Raisonné. Galina IX (Sears Hat)
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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Galina IX (Sears Hat)
Catalogue No. 388
Artist's CR 365
1976
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Bronze
Edition of 10
19.5 x 9.5 x11.5 inches / 50 x 24 x29 cm
- Shidoni Foundry and Galleries, Tesuque, 1977
- Gerald Laing: The Galina Series, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Inverness, 1994
At the moment, among many other things, I am concerned with the dialogue between very high and careful finish, in its implications and a sort of pre-industrial notion of symmetry - similarity. This is noticeable in the technique employed in the reclining figure clay relief and in Galina IX. This last is just done, so to speak, with an intention of symmetry but without a reliance on rulers etc., not even with close visual checks.
But whatever happens we must never rely on this sort of explanation to gain respectability for such a thing. It has to contribute to, or provide, authority in a vacuum.
'Diary entry, 19 January 1977', Gerald Laing, 1977