Peter Doig is a contemporary Scottish artist acclaimed for his significant contributions to representational painting. His art is characterized by an equal emphasis on landscapes and figures, skillfully blending art historical and personal elements to create unique and expressive painterly abstractions. Through his work, Doig captures powerful glimpses of modern life, often drawing from personal experiences like childhood ski trips or scenes with an orange canoe, making his art both intimate and universally relatable. His artistic approach is diverse and versatile, lacking a central formula, yet offering profound insights into his personal history and political beliefs.
Born on April 17, 1959, in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Doig's family relocated to Trinidad in 1962 due to his father's job and later moved to Canada in 1966. In 1979, he moved to London, where he pursued studies at the Wimbledon School of Art, culminating in an MA from the Chelsea College of Art and Design in 1990. In 2000, Doig was invited by his friend, painter Chris Ofili, to an artist residency in Trinidad, which had a significant impact on his artistic journey. Notably, his solo exhibition Peter Doig: No Foreign Lands, held at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh in 2013, marked a meaningful return to the country of his birth.
Today, Peter Doig's remarkable artworks are esteemed additions to the collections of prestigious institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, and the Goetz Collection in Munich, among others.