Tate Britain
5 February – 27 April 2008
The most comprehensive exhibition to date of the work of Peter Doig will open at Tate Britain in February 2008. Spanning two decades, this major survey comprises over 50 paintings and a group of works on paper. It will also include a substantial body of work developed in the five years since his move to Trinidad in 2002 – many of them not previously shown in the UK.
Peter Doig’s highly distinctive approach to painting has won him international acclaim. He made his name in London in the early 90s and has been a leading figure in the British art scene ever since. Using everyday photographic images from newspapers or snapshots as a compositional starting point, Peter Doig’s haunting paintings have a strong sense of atmosphere – his figures often seem out of time, and his landscapes possessed of a strange, unnamable presence. The narrative lure of the image is always countered by the visceral impact of the painted surface.
This exhibition will not only provide the widest overview of the artist’s work to date, but also allows his themes and approach to be considered together – looking again at work from the early and mid 90s, and exploring his very particular choice of subjects. It will also reveal the shifts in his approach to making paintings over this period.
The exhibition will bring together works from international public and private collections including Grand Riviere 2001–2 (National Gallery of Ottowa), 100 Years Ago (Carrera) 2001 (N Md’a M, Pompidou, Paris) and Lapeyrouse Wall 2004 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). At the heart of the show is a room of Doig’s works on paper, which relate to and extend the themes of the paintings. This room will also illuminate Doig’s conceptual approach to his subject, as he repeats and reframes motifs in different paintings over an extended period of time.
Peter Doig’s work has been exhibited at major museums and galleries worldwide. Born in Edinburgh in 1959, raised in Canada, and based in London for two decades, he now lives in Trinidad. Doig attended Wimbledon School of Art (1979-80) and then Central St Martin’s School of Art (1980-1983), and later studied at ChelseaSchool of Art (1989-1990). Peter Doig won the John Moores Prize, Liverpool in 1993, was nominated for The Turner Prize in 1994, and served as a Tate Trustee from 1995-2000.
The exhibition is curated by Judith Nesbitt, Chief Curator, Tate Britain. An exhibition catalogue published by Tate Enterprises will include essays by Judith Nesbitt, and Dr. Richard Shiff, Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art, University of Texas at Austin as well as a conversation between Peter Doig and his friend, the artist, Chris Ofili. The exhibition will tour to ARC/Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris from 26 May – 14 September 2008 and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany from 8 October 2008 – 11 January 2009.