Catalogue Raisonné. Homage to Josef Albers
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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Homage to Josef Albers
Catalogue No. 689
Artist's CR 629
February, 2007
London
Oil on canvas
64 x 72 inches / 163 x 183 cm
Collection: Unknown
The habits and maquillage of the femme fatale distance her from her prisoners, providing the same function in the same way as any other uniform. The prisoners’ genitals are hidden by abstract art.
The banality of this art - I refer in this case to the American painter Josef Albers, but much other art of this type is equally meaningless - is elided with the prurient disguising of the sexual organs.
This in turn distances us from the actuality of the events depicted. Thus everyone involved is to some degree depersonalised.
The woman guard in her particular role remains far more artificial (in the sense of personal dishonesty) than do her victims, whose images disclose themselves more slowly, more subtly, and in greater detail.
'Artist's Notes on War Paintings', Gerald Laing, unpublished manuscript, 2004