Gerald Laing - Sculpture: By Appointment in London and Yorkshire

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In the early 1960s Gerald Laing became known as an artist at the forefront of the Pop Art movement, and ever since his work has been included in every major survey of the period.

However, in 1965 Laing's focus shifted dramatically towards sculpture, devoting the next forty years to the discipline. Laing's painting evolved into abstract sculptures using the techniques and materials of car customisation - lacquering, spray-painting, and chrome-plating on metal. A pivotal moment for Laing was his inclusion in Kynaston McShine’s Primary Structures: Younger American and British Sculptors exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1966, where three of his sculptures were exhibited alongside the Minimalist work of Anthony Caro, Carl Andre, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin. Further success that decade included group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Though lauded as a principal member of the New York avant-garde, in 1969 Laing traded New York’s art scene for the remote Scottish Highlands and relocated to Kinkell Castle. This move resulted in an unusual artistic shift from the abstract to the figurative. Leaving behind the sterile white cube spaces of New York’s galleries, Laing increased the volume and weight of his sculptures to embrace the vast ruggedness of the local landscape. Inspired by an epiphanic early-morning encounter with Charles Sargeant Jagger’s Royal Artillery Memorial during a visit to London in 1973; Laing, who already felt that he had exhausted the possibility of injecting his pre-existing abstract forms with natural and anthropomorphic elements, turned to working from life and recruited his wife as his model. The Galinaseries of figurative bronzes produced during this decade remain some of Laing’s most iconic sculptures.

Laing’s work has been internationally exhibited and is held in collections worldwide, including at The National Gallery and Tate in London, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and The Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

Willoughby Gerrish Ltd represents the estate of Gerald Laing for sculpture.