• Intro
• Room 1
• Room 2
• Room 3
• Room 4
• Room 5
• Room 6
• Room 7
• Room 8

Room guide: Room 2

Peter Doig
Jetty 1994
Oil on canvas
Mima and César Reyes Collection, Puerto Rico © courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London enlarge

Doig’s work is inspired by the flow of things seen everyday and by the art he looks at, from past and present. It seems personal, yet he often draws upon found photographic sources — newspaper images and postcards, as well as photos he has taken himself. Suffused with strangeness, his paintings seem a world apart.

The pictures in this room exemplify Doig’s unusual choice of subjects. A number of them feature an isolated, anonymous figure — a motif that recurs throughout his career. Even the uninhabited landscapes and houses have a haunted aspect. Within these imaginative scenarios, the atmosphere is highly charged, yet the narrative is uncertain. In Young Bean Farmer (1991) the ambiguous nature of the scene invites the viewer to determine their own reading of the story. In other works, such as Jetty (1994), the visual representation seems to be dissolving into the abstract medium of paint.

Selected works from this room:

Peter Doig
Young Bean Farmer 1991
Oil on canvas
© courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London enlarge