Peter Doig returns back to Michael Werner Gallery, London, following his last exhibition in 2017. On show are new paintings highlighting the artist’s versatile approach mastering a wide range of techniques, drawn from both the present and the past.

Generally representing people in nameless landscapes – in some of which motifs from Trinidad or Canada can frequently be recognised – Doig’s large-format paintings are often based on private pictorial material or found objects. Their colourfulness, luminosity and enigmatic atmosphere make them fascinating. Doig thereby continues the tradition of great masters such as Gauguin, Bonnard, and Matisse.

In the Romantic sense, Doig’s works convey a sense of yearning in which viewers can lose themselves. His representations of nature, which are often extremely mysterious, are as exotic as they are melancholy and as attractive as they are sinister.

In a method akin to sampling, Doig seeks out fragments from contemporary life and civilisation, and integrates them into his works. He takes photos, newspaper cuttings and pictures drawn from pop culture, like album covers and film posters, and uses them as the starting-point for his paintings. The subject matter and painting techniques of the works he creates therefore offer new visual possibilities while nonetheless subtly seeming familiar to viewers.

Peter Doig was born in Edinburgh in 1959 and currently lives and works in New York and Trinidad.

Peter Doig
Michael Werner Gallery
London
Through 16 November 2019
http://michaelwerner.com

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