St Valentine’s Day Massacre 1962
St Valentine’s Day Massacre
Catalogue raisonné no. E23
1962
London
Oil on canvas
48 x 84 inches / 0 cm
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Ian Carr, 'Gerald Laing', Newcastle Life, Maychevron_right
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Gerald Laing, 'Aspen Notebook', unpublished manuscript, 1966chevron_right
Selected Citations and Comments
... based on a photograph taken after the St. Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago. It employed a tilted floor, tilted towards the surface of the canvas; it had a strong geometric composition, employing the wall, chairs and shadows; but the figures were codified, depersonalised with numbers, using the same device as is used in the key drawing for identifying figures in a group photograph. It also had a quotation from a book describing the event reproduced on it somewhere. I am fairly certain I had not seen any of Kitaj’s work at that time. The most important facet of this work, however, was that it represented for me my first break from literal order, a break which was facilitated for me by my new hope and confidence.