"My first Muse, in 1963, was Brigitte Bardot, who achieved a very early revival of the genre after the War's end and its grim grey aftermath. I painted my image of her during my third year at St Martin's, after I' d moved my worksite in despair from the dismal painting studios to the top landing of the staircase...

The painting measures 152.5 x 122 cm and the source for it was the logo on the request for entries for the 1963 'Young Contemporaries' exhibition – a black and white photograph of Brigitte Bardot on which a black circle had been superimposed. I quite cheekily painted this image and submitted it for the exhibition, and it was duly selected. Now, with the passage of time, my image has eclipsed its long-forgotten source. It's fair to say that 'BB' is now one of the icons of the 60s Pop movement, that it is well-known. . . " – G L

By capitalising on Bardot’s fame and using the bold geometric shape imposed over her face, Laing created one of the most memorable images of early Pop art. The actor Roddy Maude-Roxby visited Laing at St Martin’s having heard about it and purchased it immediately for £50. It stayed in his collection until 2014 when it was sold at Christie’s for a record sum of £902,500.

[from the exhibition catalogue of 'Gerald Laing - Myth & Muse: the cult of celebrity', The Fine Art Society, 2024]