Canary Wharf

This meticulous painting portrays the final stages of the construction of the One Canada Square, better known as Canary Wharf Tower. Designed by Cesar Pelli, the tower was London's, and indeed Europe's, tallest building when it was completed in 1991. The viewpoint is taken from the Westferry station on the Docklands Light Railway.

Rather than glorifying the subject, Laubin's painting shows the dwarfing effect of the tower on its surroundings while also capturing the 'cranomania' of the late 20th century. A former architect, Laubin was drawn to this subject because 'it seemed ... that Canary Wharf was the last big fling of the eighties property boom, a very specific time and situation to record, the end of an era'. In fact, One Canada Square was not to be the last but the first of several skyscrapers to be built in Docklands in the 1990s and 2000s.