GERALD LAING

Selected Citations and Comments

The Human Condition and Ecce Domina show a more classical spirit in the fullness and harmony of the figure and its self-contained nature in space. Even the separation of the arms from the body is avoided - Ecce Domina has one arm attached to her side, while in The Human Condition both arms and head are encased… It remains to be seen whether Laing has reached a resting-point in The Human Condition at which he may develop its generalizing character into true classicism.

Douglas Hall, An Exhibition of Sculpture by Gerald Laing at the Edinburgh Festival 1978, exhibition catalogue, Gladstone Court, Edinburgh, 1978

A celebration of the triumph of ideal feminine physical beauty. Some people have accused me of misogyny in respect of this work; the first to do so was the Minister of Holyrood Kirk in Edinburgh, who saw it at my exhibition at the 1978 Edinburgh Festival. Carrying a pastoral crook, he swept into the makeshift gallery and announced to the young woman whom I had hired to supervise the exhibition that I was a woman-hater, because I exposed women’s bodies and covered their heads. He failed to perceive that the subject was the power of the female form, which I did not wish to particularise by giving the figure a personal identity. When I heard of his reaction I went down to the Kirk to look for him, but fortunately he was not at home. A clue to the meaning of the sculpture is that I intended it to be the female equivalent of ‘Ecce Homo’ (Behold the Man), which would have been ‘Ecce Femina’; but this has untidy connotations. It was Antonia Fraser who suggested ‘Ecce Domina’ instead - ‘Behold the Lady’.

Douglas Hall, An Exhibition of Sculpture by Gerald Laing at the Edinburgh Festival 1978, exhibition catalogue, Gladstone Court, Edinburgh, 1978