Peter Doig Painting for Wall Painters (Prosperity P.o.S.) 2010–12 Distemper on linen 2.4 x 3.6 m Private collection (Image 1/15)
Peter Doig is counted among the world’s most renowned living painters. Born in the UK in 1959, Doig soon moved to Trinidad with his parents, and then to Canada, where he spent much of his childhood and adolescence. He moved back to Britain for his post-secondary art training before basing himself in Trinidad—albeit with frequent travels to other locales.
Inspired by the various places he has lived and worked, as well as the history of painting, Doig has, this summer, been the subject of a survey at the Scottish National Gallery that focuses on works created in the last 10 years. (To view a slideshow of paintings from his past decade of production, click on the Photos icon above.)
Titled “No Foreign Lands” after the Robert Louis Stevenson quotation “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign,” the Edinburgh survey reflects Doig’s familiarity with Canadian painters such as David Milne, James Wilson Morrice and Ozias Leduc as well as international masters like Gauguin and Matisse.
From January 25 to May 4, 2014, “No Foreign Lands” will tour to Montreal’s Musée des beaux-arts —an appropriate venue given that Doig’s family lived on the West Island and in the Eastern Townships in his early years, and Doig worked there for a time in his twenties. (He also lived in Toronto during his high-school years, and even did some work on Alberta gas rigs in his late teens.)
In the cover story of the Fall 2013 issue of Canadian Art, which hits newsstands nationwide September 15, Doig talks with Sarah Milroy about preparation for the touring survey, the themes of his paintings, and his reflections on artists such as Jeff Wall, the Group of Seven and others. “At a distance,” he tells Milroy of displacement and his work, “the image is allowed to develop on its own, outside of its original context.”
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This article was corrected on May 12, 2014. The original copy indicated that the Peter Doig exhibition would continue in Montreal until June 8, 2014. This was the best information available in early September 2013. The end date later became May 4, 2014. We regret any confusion this may have caused.
