GERALD LAING (1936-2011)

Conception belongs to Gerald Laing's Galina series (1973-80): a series of sculptures made of Galina Golikova, Laing's second wife. In 1973 Laing began to model in clay and cast in bronze, and in 1978 set up his own bronze foundry at the couple's newly restored home, Kinkell Castle, near Inverness, Scotland. He had abandoned painting- to which he returned briefly at the end of his life, and turned increasingly to portrait sculpture and public statues.

The Galina series was semi-abstract and strongly Brancusian in approach and technique. Further inspiration came from the artist Laing recalled:

'In 1973 I had an epiphany while looking at [it]. Its powerful, narrative and humanistic content made me realise that in order to produce more significant work I required an infinite vocabulary of forms which the limitations of sheet metal did not allow.

As a result of this experience I change[d] my entire method of working. I modelled my sculpture in clay and learned how to cast it into bronze. Galina I was the first in this new body of work. Overall it represents a progression towards greater figuration, but all of the figures are treated formally. They are emotionally expressive and convey essential elements of the sitter...

This period of my work represents a search for a figurative language. The Galina Series was made concurrently with various other sculpture, such as Reclining Figure, Woman with Long Hair and Torso. They were all figurative sources which I developed towards a greater or lesser degree of formal abstraction".