Peter Doig is a Scottish figurative painter.
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Facts About Peter Doig
- Peter Doig was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1959.
- His family moved to Trinidad (West Indies) in 1962, and they moved to Canada in 1966.
- His father was an amateur painter, and his aunt, Anne McEntegart was a professional artist.
- He studied at the Wimbledon School of Art from 1979 to 1980, and then went on t study at Saint Martin’s School of Art (1980-83) and the Chelsea School of Art (1989-90).
- He met his wife, Bonnie Kennedy at Wimbledon College. They are now separated.
- He worked part-time as a dresser at the English National Opera in 1989.
- In 2000, he returned to Trinidad to take up an artist’s residency post with his friend and fellow artist, Chris Ofili.
- In 2002, Peter Doig established a studio at the Caribbean Contemporary Arts Centre.
- Most of Peter Doig’s paintings are landscapes, and many draw on his childhood experiences of growing up in Canada’s snowy climate.
- He is also inspired by photographs, newspaper clippings, movies, and the work of other artists, such as Edvard Munch, HC Westermann, Monet, Klimt, and Friedrich.
- In 1991, Doig won the Whitechapel Artist Prize for his solo exhibition, which included paintings titled Swapmed, Iron Hill, The Architect’s Home in the Ravine (featuring Eberhard Zeidler in his Toronto home).
- His painting Canoe-Lake was inspired by the horror movie Friday the 13th.
- In 2003 Peter Doig started an ongoing project with the artist Che Lovelace called Studio Film club. Each week Peter Doig shows a movie in his studio and paints a poster the advertise it.
- Peter Doig’s work has been featured in galleries and museums in cities all over the world, including London, New York, Chicago, Paris, Washington, Dallas, Munich, Maastricht, Edinburgh, Montreal, Basel, and Venice.
- He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1994.
- Other of Peter Doig’s influences include Joseph Cornell, The Hairy Who Gunter Bras, Francis Bacon, and Edward Burra. He enjoyed the Julian Schnabel and Eric Fischl Whitechapel art shows, and the Don Van Vleet show at Waddington.
- He has five children.
- Peter Doig’s White Canoe painting sold for just over $11 million at auction in 2007, and in 2013 The Architect’s Home in the Ravine sold for $12 million. Swamped sold for nearly $26 million in 2015 and sold again in 2021 for $39 million.
I love the idea that the pictures might be films and the viewer could become the director of the film.
Peter Doig
- His painting Ski Jacket was inspired by a newspaper photograph of a Japanese ski resort, and Blotter was inspired by a photograph Peter Doig took of his brother standing by a frozen pond.
- He enjoys kayaking around Trinidad, often taking trips with Chris Ofili.
- Peter Doig’s work has influenced many other artists, including Michael Armitage, and Varda Caivano.
- His paintings nearly always include human figures. They are often obscured or hidden by the landscape.
- His work often includes both figurative and abstract elements, and his landscapes are painted in a magical realist style.
- In 2021 Peter Doig collaborated with Kim Jones on a range of menswear for Dior.
- Some of his works are based on album art. Untitled (Double Portrait), for example, is inspired by the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young album Déjà Vu, and 100 Years Ago is based on the cover of an Allman Brothers Band album.
It’s not about perfection. What’s a perfect painting? What’s interesting about a perfect painting?
Peter Doig
