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Just Another Pretty Face
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? Gerald Laing

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Just Another Pretty Face Dated 1968
  • Scottish Art
This work is based on a painting Laing made between 1962 and 1965, and he hand-printed it in his loft in New York. Laing explained that the inspiration for works such as `Just Another Pretty Face?, grew from the ?new commercial images which were appearing around us?after the peeling stucco of war-time neglect. I was transfixed by the crude but powerful printing process used in the poster advertisements, and the ambivalence between the whole image which they contained, and the means by which it had been created ? the dots and lines and cacophony of form and colour visible at short range, and the reassuring integrity of the image at a distance?.

Glossary Open

Abstract art

Art in which there is no attempt to represent anything existing in the world, particularly used of the 20th century onwards. `Abstraction? refers to the process of making images that may in part derive from the visible world but which are reduced to basic formal elements.

Figurative art

A general term for art that refers to the real, visible world, used more specifically for the representation of the human figure.

Print

An image pressed or stamped onto paper or fabric. This encompasses a wide variety of techniques, usually produced in multiples, although one-off prints, known as monoprints, are also included. The term is also applied to photographic images.

Stucco

A type of plaster containing lime, powdered marble and glue, used for moulded decoration. Invented by the ancient Romans, it was revived in the 16th century.

Abstract art, Figurative art, Print, Stucco

Details

  • Acc. No. GMA 1511
  • Medium Screenprint on paper (a.p.)
  • Size 76.30 x 39.40 cm (paper 89.00 x 58.60 cm)
  • Credit Purchased 1975

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