Gerald Laing
Gerald Laing was a British pop artist and sculptor born on 11 February 1936 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He studied at Berkhamsted School, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and Saint Martin’s School of Art. Laing served as a lieutenant with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers in Ireland and Germany, but found army life unfulfilling and left to pursue art.
In the early 1960s he moved to New York, where he met leading pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. His career took him from the avant-garde of pop art to minimalist and representational sculpture, and then back to pop art. He also taught sculpture at the University of New Mexico and at Columbia University.
Laing had retrospective recognition, including a 1993 show at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh and a 2012 exhibition of his prints and multiples at Sims Reed Gallery. His work included anti-war paintings inspired by Abu Ghraib, and later portraits of Amy Winehouse, Victoria Beckham, and Kate Moss. A bronze sculpture titled Dreamer was stolen from Kelvingrove Art Gallery in 2012, and a 1963 Brigitte Bardot painting sold for a record price at Christie’s in 2014. The Estate of Gerald Laing is represented by Sims Reed Gallery.
He was married three times and had six children. His first wife was Jennifer Redway (married 1962–1967), followed by Galina Golikova (married 1969–1983), and Adaline Frelinghuysen (married 1988). He later had a sixth child with Alison Urquhart in 2002. In 1968 he bought Kinkell Castle in the Scottish Highlands and turned it into his home, studio, and workshop. Gerald Laing died on 23 November 2011 at Kinkell Castle.
His son Farquhar Laing (born 1970) founded Black Isle Bronze, and another son, Sam Ogilvie, runs Ogilvie Design Studio.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:43 (CET).