The Fine Art Society in London (FAS), which celebrated its 140th anniversary in June, is presenting an exhibition of works by the British Pop artist Gerald Laing (19 September-13 October). This will be the first show of the artist’s work since his death in 2011. Coinciding with the show is the publication of the artist's first catalogue raisonné by Laing’s estate.
The FAS represented Laing from the 1990s until his death and held four exhibitions of his work while the artist was still alive. “The gallery is in the perfect place to celebrate Laing’s incredible body of work,” says its director Gordon Cooke in a statement.
The show will touch on all phases of the artist’s career, with around 60 paintings and sculptures on display, from his early paintings while he was a student at St Martin’s School of Art in London (now Central Saint Martins), and his large 1960s canvases of models and film stars, to his more politically-engaged works, such as his depiction of President Kennedy's assassination, Lincoln Convertible (1964). Also on view will be the abstract metal sculptures that Laing created at the end of the 1960s, when he moved to the Scottish Highlands and built a foundry in the newly restored, 16th-century Kinkell Castle.
The show will conclude with a body of work, created in 2004, that criticises the Iraq war, and his final paintings of celebrity and pop culture, with studies of public figures such as Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse.