The Laundrette

In the 1970s the social-realist paintings in Louay Kayyali's repertoire depict dispossessed working-class figures, where the focus is a single figure, typically boys forced to work in menial jobs such as shoe-shiners and newspaper or lottery ticket vendors, rather than attending school, or men and women engaged in thankless tasks. The present lot is one such example, where the humble laundrette is bent over her washing basin, diligently performing her duties.