Catalogue Raisonné. Catechism, CR626
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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Catechism
CR 626
Scotland
2005
Oil on canvas
120 x 60 inches
Citations and Comments
Catechism - Instruction by question and answer, especially on religious doctrine. In the bottom third of the canvas the grieving women of Beslan bury their children. The graves are marked by white wooden posts. Further up the canvas the figures dissolve into pixels, which introduce their own officious, arbitrary and busy version of reality. The white posts are echoed by the reflections in the river of violent explosions as the glowing city of Bagdad is bombed. Above the people float the hooded torture victims from Abu Ghraib, in a manner suggestive of the Crucifixion. They are standing on Andy Warhol Brillo Box sculptures, which substitute banality for intellectual rigour.
, 'Artist's Notes on War Paintings', unpublished manuscript, 2004A number of the most provocative pieces on view incorporate images from the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. Catechism, the largest of the new paintings (10 by 6 feet), alludes to the scene of the Crucifixion. It features near the top centre of the canvas, against a background of Baghdad in flames, three figures, each modelled after the well-known photo of the hooded Abu Ghraib prisoner with his arms outstretched and attached to wires, standing on a wooden box. In Laing’s acerbic image, the figures stand on Brillo boxes, a reference to U.S. consumerism as well as to American Pop art. Below the figures, he shows a gathering of mourning women.
, 'Gerald Laing at Spike', Art in America, September 2005- Gerald Laing: Iraq War Paintings, Kings College, Cambridge, 2005
- Gerald Laing: Iraq War Paintings, Spike Gallery, New York, 2005
- Gerald Laing 1936–2011: A Retrospective, The Fine Art Society, London, 2016
- Catechism