Peter Doig is a painter from Scotland. He currently lives in Trinidad. He is known for the painting White Canoe, which sold at auction at Sotheby’s for $11.3 million in 2007. At that time, it was the highest amount ever paid for an artwork created by a living artist from Europe. His work is figurative in style and many of his paintings are landscapes. He draws inspiration from photographs which he finds and some of his own, but he paints in a style that is not photorealistic.
Many of his paintings are wintry scenes with snow included, and call to mind winters in Canada, where he lived as a child. Peter Doig is associate with the formal styles of Monet, Klimt, Friedrich and Munch. His art is conceptual in tone, and he has been noted to say that he uses postcards and photographs so that he can paint by proxy but his scenes are not intended to represent any particular setting.
Pete Doig is thought to be part of the art movement known as Metamodernism, which contains elements of post modernism and modernism, while including images and ideals of naivety, pragmatism and a bit of fanaticism. Critics describe Doig’s work as being tranquil, magically realistic, and showing scenes from angles that are not expected. Many of his works also feature canoes, which are symbolic of Canada.
Doig’s art is housed in museums worldwide, including the British Museum, London; the Tate Modern, London; the Tel Aviv Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; to name a few. Some other cities with museums or galleries exhibiting his art include Paris, Munich, Nuremburg, Lugano, San Francisco and Dallas.
