Peter Doig’s New Exhibition At The Courtauld Is A Lively And Lyrical Show

“I never try to create real spaces – only painted spaces. That’s all I am interested in. That may be why there is never really any specific time or place in my painting.” The quote is by Peter Doig, one of today’s most exciting painters. And it perfectly encapsulates the work of an artist who refuses to be settled within the constraints of time, a particular place, and the framework of art history with its movements and fleeting trends. His is the art of storytelling – a continuous, lively, lyrical and at times witty dialogue between the real and the imaginary. It is a colorful painterly layered journey in time and place.

A major new exhibition perfectly captures the spirit of the Scottish artist. “Peter Doig” at The Courtauld Gallery in London presents an exciting new chapter in his career with 12 paintings and 19 works on paper, including a selection of significant canvases created since the artist moved back from Trinidad to London in 2021.

Doig earned his reputation in the 1990s as a figurative painter with a unique voice echoed in his monumental canvases, large-scale, immersive landscapes that hover in both actuality and the realms of the imagination. Ideas stream from seemingly all over the place — photography and film, friends and family, vinyl covers, the work and thoughts of artists that came before — yet they never seem superficial references. They are part of Doig’s expansive (to my eyes) magical realism narratives, captured perfectly through the select canvases and etchings hanging on the walls of The Courtauld.

As I wonder about the exhibition, what strikes me is how Doig’s paintings and drawings appear to hover in place and time. The idea may have been born in Trinidad, but the work is completed in London or elsewhere. It doesn’t seem to matter; it’s immaterial – a concept that could perhaps be understood better by the artist’s nomadic life.

Born in Edinburgh in 1959, due to his father’s work, the family moved to Trinidad when Doig was three and then to Canada four years later. He came to London in 1979 to study art at Wimbledon School of Art and complete an MA at Chelsea College of Art; then, in 2000 took on an artist residency in Trinidad, moving back to London in 2021, where he has set up his studio. The Courtauld exhibition captures this last juncture in Doig’s career — the final moment of transition, beautifully.

There is a fluidity with the concept of time for Doig. Much of the work here has taken years to complete, and it seems as though the process and the experience of making have taken precedence over the final product.

“Alice at Boscoe,” a vividly alive painting of a girl (his daughter) in a hammock in Trinidad, took nine years to complete and was only finalized in 2023. Likewise, “Night Bathers” began life in 2011 and was completed in 2019. This latter painting is set in Trinidad’s Maracas Bay, one of the most popular beaches on the island. But rather than a sun-drenched paradise, Doig shows a nighttime scene, the shimmering colors inspired by seeing phosphorescence one night when the glow of millions of marine organisms lighted up the sea.

Collectively, the figurative works on show are real and unreal, a painterly layering of art history, personal diaristic references, the seen and unseen, the every day, the intimate and social. Some are powerful snapshots of contemporary life, at times using photography as a reference, such as with “House of Music” (Soca Boat). The painting is based on a photograph of fishermen holding their catch aloft, with Doig transforming the fishermen into musicians. The title is borrowed from Shadow, one of Trinidad’s most famous soca musicians, and his 1979 song “Dat Soca Boat.” Shadow sings of his passion for music and not wanting to sink “dat soca boat,” while Doig gives visual form to the idea of the music being a boat at sea. It’s a lovely painting full of color, texture and humor.

A display of etchings by Doig accompanies the exhibition, presented on another floor presumably not to drown among the large-scale colorful paintings. The small etchings are extraordinary, delicate and intimate — the painter’s response to the poetry of his friend, the late Derek Walcott, who composed a suite of work in conversation with Doig’s work.

I leave the etchings to walk through the gallery’s permanent displays of Cézanne, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Van Gogh, Bloomsbury Group, and more. Doig is a big fan of the collection here. “The Courtauld’s great Impressionist collection is a touchstone for many artists,” says the head of the gallery Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen. “It offers the perfect context to experience how Doig’s work resonates strongly with the art of the past whilst charting new directions.”

“The Morgan Stanley Exhibition: Peter Doig” is on at The Courtauld in London from February 10 to May 29, 2023.

Also, read about Soheila Sokhanvari’s timely exhibition “Rebel Rebel,” see the work of artist Nikita Gale for Frieze, Almudena Romero at Paris Photo, Rolls-Royce Muse challenge, and Émeric Lhuisset at Paris Photo.