gerald laing

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zaten yeni iraq paintings lerini de koymus abu garib teki işkencelere feci kafa yormus abimiz ,cok hosuma gitti bir de üstüne jeremy watson'nn laing hakkında yazdığı bir article
'Immoral' war spurs legend to paint again
JEREMY WATSON
HE was part of the Andy Warhol set and heralded as Britain’s answer to the pop art sensation. Gerald Laing’s paintings of 1960s American life were adored by critics and his abstract work adorned the walls of leading galleries.
Laing then shocked the art world by ditching his paint brushes, moving to the north of Scotland and embarking on a 35-year career as a sculptor.
Now, both inspired and outraged by the Iraq war, Laing has delivered another surprise by producing his first paintings for more than a third of a century.
Ex-soldier Laing, whose works command prices of up to £30,000, says he is incensed by the "immorality" of the war and feels compelled to make an artistic protest.
He has now painted a "ferocious" and controversial series of new works depicting infamous scenes from inside the notorious Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad which will be put on show for the first time in Edinburgh in October.
"I am absolutely disgusted with the immorality of the war and the diminution of the American dream," said 68-year-old Laing, who is best known now for his large bronze sculptures in public spaces in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and London.
"What went on in Abu Ghraib in particular is gross inhumanity and anarchy of a kind we were supposed to be going into Iraq to cure. Images of prisoners covered in excrement and guards standing over naked prisoners grinning made me very angry. "
Laing said he hoped the images would make "people sit up and take notice". He added: "I don’t particularly believe in the artists’ power to change things but I felt so strongly about this I felt I had to do it.
"I put a lot of ferocity into this and everyone who has seen them so far has reacted very favourably. There are lot of people who are fed up with the ‘force majeure’ of the Americans and the way they do this kind of thing with impunity. It’s as though there is nothing to believe in any more."
Laing was born in Newcastle in 1936 and was trained as an officer at Sandhurst before joining the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and serving in Aden and Northern Ireland.
"I was in the army for seven years and so I have a perspective on what is going on in Iraq. I am not naive and realise that in these situations there will be torture and violence," Laing said.
"But when I saw those images from Abu Ghraib I was sickened. The guards were just cowardly bullies of the type the Americans and its allies were supposed to have gone into the country to stop."
Laing said he went to the US in the early 1960s because he was attracted by the promise of a modern, idealistic and vigorous nation pushing forward the boundaries.
After meeting Warhol and other emerging stars of pop art in New York he decided to stay to make his name.
His abstract images of popular heroes such as astronauts and Hollywood starlets were well received and he became one of the most fashionable names of the era. His best-known work, in 1962, was of Brigitte Bardot pouting through a black circle that emphasised her perfect features. His 1964 work, Skydivers, was bought by the Tate Gallery in London.
But, Laing says, his view of the American dream began to sour in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination and the continuing Vietnam War. He was no stranger to controversy, with his painting of the Kennedy assassination rejected by major galleries because of its controversial content.
"My early work was very celebratory of America but the whole experience started to sour because of these major events," Laing said. "I decided to leave pop art behind and get into more formal artistic methods."
He moved to Scotland in 1969 and bought the ruined Kinkell Castle near Beauly, a few miles west of Inverness. He spent more than a decade restoring it and building a studio in the grounds.
His best-known works include the statue of Sherlock Holmes in Edinburgh’s Picardy Place, The Batsman at Lord’s Cricket Ground and the bronze bust of arts benefactor Paul Getty in the foyer of the National Gallery in London.
But his return to the oils with which he originally made his name has astonished the arts world in Scotland, especially as he is dealing with such contentious subject matter.
"Gerald is an artist of world renown and an extremely important and famous painter in the US in the 1960s. It was surprising when he gave it up to come and live in Scotland," said arts impresario Richard Demarco. "I am very pleased that has he taken up painting again because he is a great all-rounder in artistic terms and has the passion, compassion and high intelligence to pull this kind of subject matter off.
"As well as that he was an army officer so he knows not only about the obscenity of war but also the rules that should be applied by democracies. I am sure that from that perspective his new images will be utterly compelling and will create a major stir.
"The job of an artist is to tell the unpalatable truth and his paintings will be deserving of a place in a major national collection."
Duncan McMillan, curator of the Talbot Rice Art Gallery in Edinburgh, said: "Gerald Laing was part of the pop culture scene in the 1960s but has been in sculpture for most of the last 30 years. It is very interesting that he has now changed his mind and taken up painting again."
The paintings will go on show at the Bourne Fine Art Gallery in Edinburgh on October 8 as part of a retrospective of Laing’s career.
Director Emily Walsh said: "There is a strong message behind them. The catalyst was the photographs from Iraq of the US troops ridiculing and torturing their opponents.
"The message is as much humanitarian as political and they are bound to evoke a strong response."

*** http://news.scotsman.com/arts.cfm?id=1013562004