Peter Doig facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Peter Doig
Doig at the No Foreign Lands exhibition (2013).
Born	(1959-04-17) 17 April 1959 (age 66) Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Education	Wimbledon, Saint Martin's & Chelsea Schools of Art
Known for	Painting

Blotter, 1993, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Peter Doig (born April 17, 1959) is a famous painter. He is from Scotland, but he lived in many different places when he was young. He spent time in Trinidad, Canada, and Britain. From 2002 to 2021, he lived in Trinidad with his family. After that, he moved back to London.

Doig's paintings are very popular. In 2007, his painting White Canoe sold for over $11 million. This was a record price for a living European artist at an auction. In 2013, another painting, The Architect's Home in the Ravine, sold for $12 million.

Early Life and Education

Peter Doig was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1962, his family moved to Trinidad. His father worked there for a shipping company. In 1966, they moved again, this time to Canada.

Later, Doig moved to London to study art. He went to the Wimbledon School of Art from 1979 to 1980. Then he studied at Saint Martin's School of Art from 1980 to 1983. He finished his studies at Chelsea School of Art from 1989 to 1990. There, he earned his Master of Arts (MA) degree.

In 2000, Doig was invited to return to Trinidad. He took part in an artist's program with his friend, painter Chris Ofili. In 2002, Doig decided to move back to the island. He set up his art studio there. He also became a professor at the Fine Arts Academy in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Artistic Style and Inspiration

Many of Peter Doig's paintings show landscapes. Some of his works remind people of the snowy scenes from his childhood in Canada. He gets ideas for his paintings from many sources. These include photographs, newspaper clippings, and movie scenes. He also looks at album covers and the work of older artists.

Doig's landscapes are rich in detail and meaning. He uses ideas from artists like Edvard Munch and Monet. Even though he often uses found photographs as a starting point, his paintings are not photorealistic. This means they don't look exactly like a photo. He uses photos only as a guide. Doig once said that his paintings don't try to show a real place.

After he finished art school, Doig won the Whitechapel Artist Prize. This led to his first solo art show in 1991. Important paintings like Swamped and The Architect's Home in the Ravine were shown there. The Architect's Home in the Ravine shows a modern house in a valley in Toronto.

Doig also created a series of paintings about a famous building. This building is called l'Unité d’Habitation in France. It's a modern apartment building designed by Le Corbusier. In the early 1990s, Doig helped restore this building. His paintings show how the forest around the building partly hides it.

In the late 1990s, Doig painted a series of works about a tunnel in Toronto. An unknown artist painted a rainbow over this tunnel in 1972. The rainbow has been repainted many times since then. Doig's 1997 painting Canoe-Lake was inspired by the horror movie Friday the 13th.

In 2003, Doig started a weekly film club in his studio. He did this with Trinidadian artist Che Lovelace. Doig chose the movies and showed them. He also painted posters to advertise each week's film. He found this project very freeing because it was faster than his usual painting.

Major Exhibitions

Peter Doig's art has been shown in many important museums around the world.

• In 2008, he had a big solo show at Tate Britain in London. This show also traveled to Paris and Frankfurt.
• He had exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2005 and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich in 2004.
• His first major exhibition in Scotland was called No Foreign Lands. It took place in Edinburgh in 2013. This show featured works he made while living in Trinidad.
• The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts held his first major exhibition in North America in 2014.
• A large show of his work opened at Fondation Beyeler in Basel in 2014. It then went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark in 2015.
• In 2023, a new exhibition of his recent works opened at London’s Courtauld Gallery. Most of these paintings were made after he moved back to London in 2021.
• In late 2023 and early 2024, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris hosted two exhibitions by Doig. One showed his large paintings, and the other featured historical works from the museum's collection that Doig chose.

Awards and Recognition

Peter Doig has received several important awards for his art.

• In 1993, he won first prize at the John Moores exhibition for his painting Blotter.
• In 1994, he was nominated for the Turner Prize, a very famous art award.
• From 1995 to 2000, he was a trustee of the Tate Gallery. This means he helped guide the museum.
• In 2009, he received an award from amfAR for his artistic contributions.
• He was named the 2017 Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon.

Art Market and Value

Peter Doig's paintings are highly valued in the art market.

• In 2007, his painting White Canoe sold for $11.3 million at Sotheby's. This was a record for a living European artist at the time.
• In 2013, The Architect’s Home in the Ravine was sold for about £7.66 million (around $12 million) at a Christie's auction in London.
• Later in 2013, his painting Jetty sold for $11.3 million.
• In 2014, Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre sold for over $17 million.
• His painting Swamped sold for $25.95 million in 2015 and then for $39 million in 2021.
• In 2016, a painting called Rosedale sold for $28.8 million. This set a new auction record for Doig at that time.

In 2016, there was a legal case about a painting that someone claimed was by Doig. Doig said it was not his work. A court in Chicago decided that the painting was made by a different artist with a similar name, Peter Doige. In 2023, Doig was awarded $2.5 million in payments from the painting's owner and others involved in the case.

Museum Collections

Peter Doig's paintings are part of many museum collections around the world.

• The House that Jacques Built (1992) is at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
• Boiler House (1994) is at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
• Ski Jacket (1994) is at Tate Modern in London.

His art can also be found in these public collections:

• British Museum, London
• Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
• Southampton City Art Gallery
• National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
• Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
• Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht
• Goetz Collection, Munich
• Kunsthalle, Nuremberg
• Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano
• Museu de Arte Moderna - Colecção Berardo, Sintra
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Art Institute of Chicago
• Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Dallas Museum of Art

See also

In Spanish: Peter Doig para niños