Statue of Sherlock Holmes

Gerald Laing was one of the most significant artists in both the American and British Pop art movements. He studied at the Saint Martin’s School of Art, where he established the newsprint painting style depicting newspaper images of pop culture icons on large canvases. His portrait of Brigitte Bardot, BB (1968), is his most recognizable work. On a visit to New York, he met and later exhibited with Pop artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Indiana, the latter of whom he worked for as a studio assistant. After a 30 year focus on sculpture, Laing resumed painting in the newspaper style to create works critiquing the war crimes at Abu Ghraib and commenting on celebrity culture with a series of Amy Winehouse images like Gethsemane (2008). His work is in the collections of the Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Newcastle upon Tyne, UK