Catalogue Raisonné. Tunnel and Pyramids
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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Tunnel and Pyramids
Catalogue No. 301
Artist's CR 288
1972
Kinkell
COR-TEN steel
80.5 x 34.5 x15 inches / 204 x 88 x38 cm
Collection: Private collection
- Collection of Scottish Arts Council
- Private collection
- Laing Mylius Scobie, Cleish Castle, near Kinross, 1975
- Sculpture in the Highlands: Landmark and Glenshee, The Landmark Sculpture Park, Carrbridge, 1980
- Virtue and Vision: Sculpture and Scotland, 1540–1990, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1991
- Laing Mylius Scobie, exhibition catalogue, Cleish Castle, 1975
- Sculpture in the Highlands: Landmark and Glenshee, exhibition catalogue, The Landmark Sculpture Park, 1980
- Timothy Clifford and Fiona Pearson, Virtue and Vision: Sculpture and Scotland 1540–1990, Edinburgh, 1991
This sculpture presents an extraordinary and classic profile from all viewpoints. It stands like a sentinel or watchtower on its platform of snow. This is an archetypal form, dynamic, stable, timeless: its actual size is difficult to gauge. Many modern sculptors have used space (the negative shapes between the solid forms) as a very positive and essential element in their sculpture. The slender, inverted, lance-shaped space within Tunnels and Pyramids has a crucial role to play in any reading of the sculpture. It changes shape as the viewer moves, continually creating new forms and stimulating new associations. Like Laing’s Division sculpture at Carrbridge, this work has strong figurative suggestions.
Sculpture in the Highlands: Landmark and Glenshee, Timothy Neat, exhibition catalogue, The Landmark Sculpture Park, Carrbridge, 1980, p.26