Catalogue Raisonné. Portrait of Malcolm Morley
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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Portrait of Malcolm Morley
Catalogue No. 372
Artist's CR 351
1976
Amagansett, New York
Bronze
Edition of 10
13.25 x 11 x10 inches / 34 x 28 x25 cm
- Gerald Laing: Sculpture at Chisenbury Priory, Chisenbury Priory, East Chisenbury, 2002
- Gerald Laing: From 1963 to the Present, Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh, 2004
- Space, Speed, Sex: Prints and Multiples 1965–1976, Sims Reed Gallery, London, 2006
- Gerald Laing: Sculpture at Chisenbury Priory, exhibition catalogue, Chisenbury Priory, 2002
- Gerald Laing: From 1963 to the Present, exhibition catalogue, Bourne Fine Art, 2004
- Lindsey Ingram and Rupert Halliwell (eds.), Gerald Laing Prints and Multiples: A Catalogue Raisonné, Sims Reed Ltd, London, 2006
- Space, Speed, Sex: Prints and Multiples 1965–1976, exhibition catalogue, Sims Reed Gallery, 2006
In New York and Albuquerque in 1976 I made a series of portraits of my old friend, the painter Malcolm Morley, consisting of his profile and some other detail applied to an egg-shaped form. The first of these is life-size, modelled in clay, and cast into bronze; the second is a carved bas-relief. These were followed by two multiple versions… One is a drawing etched on glass over a lithograph of an egg-shape expressing volume (and confusion); the other is three sheets of etched glass set 10 mm apart so that the layered drawings floating over one another change as the viewer moves about. At the time I was fascinated by the shape of Morley’s head and its contents.
Gerald Laing Prints and Multiples: A Catalogue Raisonné, Gerald Laing, in Lyndsey Ingram and Rupert Halliwell (eds), London, 2006, p.189