Gerald Laing embarked on a long career in the arts following two years at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst (1953–55) and a short period of Army service. In 1960 he enrolled at St Martin’s School of Art, London, graduating in 1964.
Laing began his artistic life as a Pop Artist and spent five years living and working in New York City alongside key figures in the movement, such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.
The glamour and energy of New York inspired his large canvases and his distinctive newsprint painting style, in which he depicted newspaper photographs of astronauts, models and film stars. Despite his success within the avant-garde Pop Art scene, Laing actively chose to move away from it. He returned to Britain and shifted his focus toward minimalist sculpture. In 1969 he purchased Kinkell Castle on the Black Isle in Scotland. The Castle required rebuilding which allowed him to set up a substantial bronze foundry on site to handle his work from 1977.
Galina X dates to 1977 and forms part of the Galina Series, created between 1973 and 1980. These works are based on his second wife, Galina Golikova. Semi-abstract in form, they have been described as ‘Brancusian’ in both approach and technique. Laing and Galina were married for fourteen years, during which time she modelled for him frequently. Reflecting on the series, Laing noted: ‘They are emotionally expressive and convey essential elements of the sitter with whom I had at the time an obsessive relationship. She was an excellent model with a high degree of body awareness with which she could transmit powerful emotional and sexual feeling.’
Today Laing’s work is represented in major public collections, including the Tate, the National Galleries of Scotland, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum, among many others worldwide.
