Peter Doig

b. 1959, Scottish

Biography

Born in 1959 in Edinburg, Scotland, Peter Doig is a contemporary painter living and working in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. He is best known for his dreamlike paintings of lakes, canoes, cabins, forests, and more.

The contemporary painter is one of Britains most important artists. His illustrious career is build upon an extensive body of paintings drenched in an enigmatic aura. Doig’s source material for his paintings is varied, most often drawing inspiration from photographs, films, etchings or personal memories.

In 1962, at the age of three, the Doig family moved to Trinidad, before moving to Canada in 1966. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Scottish painter returned to the United Kingdom to complete his MA in London. At the turn of the millennium, Doig established his permanent studio in Trinidad’s capital, where he continues to reside and work in close contact with Britain.

Peter Doig developed a distinctively figurative visual language. His paintings refer most often to personal memories from his childhood in Canada. In an expressive manner, Doig takes on the selected found source material and layers his landscapes formally, and conceptually.

Portrait of Peter Doig.

Career Facts

His unique style receives recognition from the early 1990s and onwards. Doig would exhibited at major institutions, encompassing the Tate Britain, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburg, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Fondation Beyeler in Basel or the Louisiane Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek.

Peter Doig would participate in the 56th Venice Biennale, opening the Fondazione Bevilacque La masa. Further, on the secondary market his works have been sold for seven up to eight figures at auction. Doing so, Doig features in internationally reputed public and private collections, including the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Tate Modern in London, the British Museum n London, or the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA).

Peter Doig is included in our list of the top 25 contemporary figurative British painters, and is one of the most important representatives of New European Painting.

Books

For further reading on Peter Doig we highly recommend the following titles:

Artworks

Peter Doig, White Canoe (version), 1993. Oil on canvas – 20.5 × 25.5 cm. Courtesy Phillips.
Peter Doig, House of Pictures, 2002 -2003. Oil on canvas – 40.8 × 30.7 cm. Courtesy Phillips.
Peter Doig, Figure in Mountain Landscape (The Big…), 1998. Oil on paper – 59.1 × 41.9 cm. Courtesy Phillips.
Peter Doig, 100 Years Ago (Carrera), 2001. Oil on canvas – 229 × 359 cm. Collection Fondation Beyeler, Riehen.
Peter Doig, Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre, 2000-2007. Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre – 196 × 296 cm. Courtesy Fondation Beyeler, Riehen.
Peter Doig, Olin MK IV, 1995. Oil on canvas – 250 × 200 cm. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen.
Peter Doig, Okahumkee (Some other people’s Blues), 1990. Collection Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek.
Peter Doig, Ping Pong, 2006-2008. Oil on canvas – 240 × 360 cm. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen.
Peter Doig, Figures in red Boat, 2005-2007. Collection Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek.
Peter Doig, Untitled, 2014. Oil on paper, mounted on canvas – 59.5 × 42 cm. Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice.
Peter Doig, Grande Riviere, 2001-2002. Collection Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek.

Last Updated on August 1, 2023

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