Beschreibung:

(Scottish Paintings & Sculpture, 4th December 2020) § GERALD LAING (BRITISH 1936-2011) WOMAN WITH LONG HAIR Signed, inscribed and dated 1975 hashtag 336 on the base, also with a personal inscription 'For D.H - God bless hang in and jump from G + G.O.L August 1979', African wonderstone 16.5cm x 11cm x 12cm h. (6.5in x 4.25in x 4.75in h.) Reference: This sculpture is recorded in the Gerald Laing archive CR No.357 as whereabouts unknown. Note: The D.H referred to in the inscription is Douglas Hall, former Keeper of the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. “When an artist paints, draws, carves or models a subject, he recreates it and by so doing, possesses it. Pygmalion is always present…. I entered the rhapsody of finding metaphors for the human form, recreating it, and making it live.” – Gerald Laing Laing’s was a career that existed in two distinct periods: his beginnings as a painter and pre-eminent British Pop Artist, and his later work as one of the country’s foremost figurative sculptors. One form evolved into the next; his paintings becoming more deeply abstract and complex until he ultimately found it easier to cut and manipulate metal sheets than attempt to stretch canvas to fit his vision. So began his sculptural practise, which in turn transitioned through abstraction to ultimately conclude in a naturalistic, figurative style. This transition was triggered in 1973 when Laing had an “epiphany” while looking at Charles Sargeant Jagger's great First World War Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner: “As a result of this experience I changed my entire method of working”. What followed was a fascinating period in which the artist experimented with and sought out his new language in sculpture, in what has been described as an ‘eclectic, post-modern re-examination of twentieth century figurative styles’. This process found Laing working on domestic scale sculpture of the human form, with works variously reflecting the influence of sculptors including Epstein, Brancusi and Picasso. The Galina Series, and Woman with Long Hair (offered here), were among the earliest of these explorations. These works were re-imagined and repeated across the course of the decade, sometimes to a greater or lesser degree of abstraction, and in different media including bronze, wood and, as in the example offered here, stone. Woman with Long Hair represents one of his more abstract interpretations of the female form. It is likely modelled on his wife and muse, Galina. This iteration was created in 1975, and at this stage Laing was still interested in a high level of stylization, and a bold exploration of volume and space, mass and voids. Echoes of Gaudier-Brzeska’s deco-inspired formal restraint and streamlined, almost mechanised finish are traceable here. It is one of five examples of this subject that he created that year in African wonderstone, also known as pyrophyllite, a fracture-less stone which carves easily and polishes to a solid, almost metallic grey/black finish.