Acquisitions

Acquired following our spring 2018 exhibition POP! Art in a Changing Britain, this iconic portfolio is the first example of Gerald Laing’s work to be added to our permanent collection.

Capturing the glamour of 1960s actresses and models, Laing used the formal aspects of mass-media photography, especially the Ben-Day dots. This brought him into close alignment with the bold simplicity of American pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Indiana (for whom he worked briefly as an assistant in 1963).

His iconography used images of starlets, film stars, astronauts and racing car drivers from mass media sources, characteristically presented in flat colour shapes have been described as ‘pure pop’.

A much loved and important painting in the collection, China Dogs in a St Ives Window by Christopher Wood had been on long-term loan to us from a private collection since 2009. We were able to permanently acquire the painting thanks to funds from The Art Fund, the Arts Council England/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund,  the Friends of Pallant House Gallery Acquisitions Fund and the generous support of our Friends and members of the public.

The painting has since been conserved, ensuring that future generations will be able to enjoy this significant work of British art. Created by Christopher Wood, an artist whose life and work occupies a significant position in the story of 20th century British art, China Dogs in a St Ives Window demonstrates a pivotal turning point in his artistic development. It marks the formation of his deliberately ‘naïve’ figurative style which was highly influential to his peers in Britain during the late 1920s. Like many of the paintings Wood created in St Ives, it draws upon a specific folk culture based on Cornish fishing traditions, giving the painting a close association with British history and national life.

Find out more about Christopher Wood’s life and art with our 2016 exhibition, Christopher Wood: Sophisticated Primitive