Depicting moments of his life from Canada to Trinidad, the vibrant paintings of Scottish artist Peter Doig are on display at the Courtauld until the end of May.
His paintings portray diverse landscapes reflecting the many places he has called home. Growing up in Canada, he became an avid skier. The painting Alpinist captures the monumental scale of nature, and the glacial colours contrast with the warmer tones of the orange skis and jewel-toned costume. The little diamond shapes in the suit are echoed in the trees below. Doig started this painting in Trinidad and completed it in Switzerland.
On the subject of his inspiration, Peter Doig hails back to masters of Post-Impressionism,
I’ve also always been interested in what painting allows you to do technically in its material aspect. What changed between Matisse and me is that there was Abstract Expressionism, minimalism and all sorts of other movements that brought new references, new techniques, and therefore allowed for new possibilities in painting.
(Interview with Numéro Magazine, September 2021)
It is fitting that just outside the exhibition room, on the walls hang masterpieces of Gauguin, Manet and Cezanne. Doig does not shy away from experimenting with colour and from leaving negative space on his canvases to play its role in the composition.
Self-Portait (Fernandes compound), 2015-23, shows Doig’s face illuminated by moonlight. It reminded me of Henri Matisse’s Self-Portrait in a Striped T-shirt because the colours of the background are seen blending with the painter’s face.
Self-Portrait in a Striped Shirt.
1906. Oil on canvas. (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen)
In Music (2 Trees), Doig creates an imagined scene based on Trinidad’s music and his friend Derek Walcott’s poetry. The figures include a calypso-player dressed in the clothes of 1960s group “The Rockafellas” in the centre, and his wife, in grey, to the right (source: museum caption).
The exhibition feels like a celebration of creative freedom, movement and music. Some of the paintings almost have a sense of being unfinished, which could be because many of them were completed in London just in time for the exhibition. Doig’s paintings are a refreshing reminder that contemporary art can pay homage to the past without losing its appeal to a twenty-first century audience.