Brigitte Bardot features in my banner to accompany the feature on Pop Art at Pallant House Gallery. The Bardot print of 1968 is from a series created by Gerald Laing while in New York.

Gerald Laing, who hailed from Newcastle Upon Tyne,  had an initial career as a soldier but left the Army in the sixties to study Art in London. Despite his British background he moved to New York and became part of the American Pop Art scene mingling with the likes of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

Baby Bay Wild Things is a portfolio of six screenprints created by Laing at this time and was his last piece of Pop Art. After this he concentrated on minimalist ideas. The predominance of bikini clad females would probably not find favour now but act as an important part of the consumer culture of sixties American Pop Art.

Laing created some 200 editions of the portfolio but the set acquired with Art Fund and private sponsorship, in 2018, for the Pallant House Gallery, is one of the few complete sets, containing the Bardot print. In many cases the set has been broken up with the Brigitte Bardot image having been sold off separately.

The Pallant House Portfolio is also complete with its original pink and blue carrying case.

Images from Pallant House Gallery publicity information © The Estate of Gerald Laing