Catalogue Raisonné. Jean Harlow
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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Jean Harlow
Catalogue No. 61
Artist's CR 059
1964
New York
Oil on irregular, shaped canvas
72.5 x 49.5 inches / 184 x 126 cm
Collection: Private collection
- Private collection
- (Richard Feigen Gallery, New York)
- Collection of John and Kimiko Powers
- Collection of Academy for Educational Development, Washington D.C.
- Sold at auction by Shannon’s, Woodmount Road, Milford, Connecticut, 28 April 2011, Lot 225
- Private collection
- Feigen-Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, 1964–5
- Selections from the John G. Powers Collection, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, 1966
- Space, Speed, Sex: Works from the early 1960s by Gerald Laing, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, London, 2006
- When Britain Went Pop. British Pop Art: The Early Years, Christie’s King Street, London, 2013
- N.M., 'Gerald Laing: Feigen-Palmer Gallery', Arts Forum, March
- Henry J. Seldis, 'Pop Virtuosity in Gerald Laing Show', Los Angeles Times, 18 January
- Michael Compton, Pop Art, Hamlyn, London, 1970
- 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
- Marco Livingstone and Amanda Lo Iacono, When Britain Went Pop. British Pop Art: The Early Years, exhibition catalogue, Christie’s King Street, 2013
The day after I met Bob [Indiana] I started working for him. To some extent the timing had been fortuitous; shortly before my arrival his long term relationship with the dress designer, John Kloss, had ended and Kloss had moved out.
John Kloss continued to visit Indiana occasionally and commissioned me to make a portrait of Jean Harlow. This I did, and the experience was useful because I had not been commissioned to make a large painting before and it forced me to tackle problems that I would not otherwise have experienced.
John gave me a copy of the famous photograph of Harlow in a negligee, sitting cross-legged in a large armchair. I used a shaped canvas - one of the first I made - to show the outline of the chair, and half tone dots for the swansdown of her negligee and for her exposed flesh. All the rest I did in flat colours, remembering the fashions from my mother’s 1930s wardrobe - especially the shoes, of which she had a great number. When I was four, I took them all from her wardrobe, lined them up along the road outside our house and attempted to sell them. My first customer betrayed me and my ‘shoe shop’ was quickly dismantled.
Kloss paid me with some of his wonderful clothes for Jenny [Laing’s wife], ones which are now seen as classic sixties masterpieces.
'Gerald Laing: An Autobiography', Gerald Laing, unpublished manuscript, 2011, ch.13
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A Friend of My Mother’s
- Study for Jean Harlow, 1964
- Jean Harlow