GERALD LAING

US on Top

Catalogue raisonné no. 672

Artist's CR 613

2004

Kinkell

Oil on canvas

36 x 32 inches / 0 cm

Exhibitions:
• Gerald Laing: From 1963 to the Present, Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh, 2004
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• Gerald Laing: Iraq War Paintings, Kings College, Cambridge, 2005
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• Gerald Laing: Iraq War Paintings, Spike Gallery, New York, 2005
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• Gerald Laing: Iraq War Paintings, Globe Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2007
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Literature:
• Gerald Laing, 'Artist’s Notes on War Paintings', unpublished manuscript, 2004
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Selected Citations and Comments

Jammed between two military stretchers, with his hands clasped behind his neck and a large US soldier sitting on him, the Iraqi prisoner’s tongue is forced out. The monumental, static nature of the soldier is contrasted by the suggestion of movement in the half-tone area in which the Iraqi resides. In the background I have painted the fabric hanging on the bars of the prison cells as though it was drapery wafted by Zephyr in a grand portrait of the 18th century.

Gerald Laing, Artist's Notes on War Paintings', unpublished manuscript, 2004