Gerald Laing

Gerald Laing was a renowned British pop artist and sculptor. Laing's career spanned various artistic movements, from 1960s Pop Art to minimalist and representational sculpture.

Biography of Gerald Laing

Gerald Laing was born in 1936 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Growing up during World War II, he experienced the Battle of Britain as a young boy.

He received his education at Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire and later attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Serving as a lieutenant with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, he was stationed in Ireland and Germany.

Realizing the military was not his true calling, Laing pursued art at Saint Martin's School of Art in London. During his time there, he was introduced to prominent New York City artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Rosenquist, and Robert Indiana. This connection helped launch his art career, leading him to move to New York after art school.

He also served as a sculpture professor at the University of New Mexico and Columbia University in New York City. A notable retrospective of his work was staged by the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh in 1993.

Laing created a series of anti-war paintings, primarily based on photographs of the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, marking the beginning of his return to pop art. In 2004, he followed these with a series of paintings featuring Amy Winehouse, as well as portraits of Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss.

The artist died in 2011. A year later, in 2012, Sims Reed Gallery held a comprehensive exhibition of his prints and multiples. In February 2014, his painting of Brigitte Bardot (1963) was sold for £902,500 at an auction at Christie's in London, setting a record sum for the artist.