Gerald Laing at the Fine Art Society
Gerald Laing was one of the original group of British Pop artists. He later turned to sculpture and then again to paintng. Some of his best known early works will be exhibited at The Fine Art Society from 27th February to 11th March 2008. Spanning a period of fifteen years, this major exhibition will include original late 1960s abstract sculpture and some of the last in the editions of his figurative bronze sculpture from the early 1970s.
The exhibition includes two pop paintings, Brigitte Bardot and Anna Karina, and also a group of early absract sculptures, which, because it remained in the USA, many British art collectors are not familiar with.
1963 ANNA KARINA & BRIGITTE BARDOT
Laing’s earliest phase dates from the spring of 1963, when his iconic paintings including Brigitte Bardot and Anna Karina were painted during his third year at St Martin's School of Art. The sources of these works were small half-tone black and white newspaper photographs. Later in 1963 Laing visited New York for the first time.
1965 RED TRACE & WHITE PIN
By 1965 Laing was living permanently in New York, where he was closely associated with Lichtenstein, Warhol, Indiana and Rosenquist. His work continued to derive from popular imagery, but had become completely abstract. Known as the Utopian works, these sculptures depended on techniques developed in connection with customising cars, including chromium-plated brass and lacquered aluminium.
1969 CORTEN PYRAMID
Laing returned to Scotland in 1969 and focused on larger, more robust and fully volumetric sculpture which was made from Corten steel. He first became obsessed by the theme of Sculpture in the Landscape, but by 1972 sought a more anthropomorphic content, especially in the Pyramids, as he returned to more humanistic concerns.
1973 GALINA I & AN AMERICAN GIRL, 1978
By 1973 Laing began to work in bronze after being inspired by Charles Sargeant Jagger's great Memorial at Hyde Park Corner. Galina I is the first work from this period, and represents the beginning of a key phase of his figurative sculpture. The Galina Series of sculpture are the focal point of the exhibition and explore Laing’s response and adulation of one woman.
All sculpture is available to buy, and is priced between £8,000-£95,000
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GERALD LAING
Anna Karina, 1963
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