Artworks

Early Paintings 1963-65

Gerald Laing began his career as one of the British Pop artists of the early 1960's. At that time his paintings were of reproduced images such as newspaper photographs, and although they were painted by hand they referred directly to printing techniques such as half tone and silkscreen.

Early subject matter was exclusively popular heroes such as stars and starlets, drag racers, astronauts and skydivers. His best known image from this period is BRIGITTE BARDOT (1962)

During his first visit to New York in 1963 he met Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jim Rosenquist, who were themselves just emerging as important artists. He spent that summer working for Robert Indiana in his loft on Coenties Slip, at the same time making his own paintings in space lent to him by Robert Indiana.

After his return to London, these paintings were seen by the dealer Richard Feigen, who had just opened his first gallery in New York. This resulted in Gerald Laing moving to New York in 1964 and showing regularly in the Feigen galleries in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles for the remainder of the 1960's. His first New York exhibition (1964) consisted of paintings of the subjects mentioned above.

During this period he became accepted as an American artist. He was in the American pavilion at the 1967 Sao Paolo Biennale in Brazil and the Whitney Museum of American Art acquired one of his works in the same year. He was an Artist in Residence at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, Colorado, in 1965. He had a $25,000 credit at Max's Kansas City in New York in exchange for works accepted by the owner, Mickey Ruskin. He rode his Vincent motorcycle and sidecar from New York to Aspen in order to take up residency at the Aspen Institute.