Peter Doig

Royal Academy of Arts, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colours: The colours are fairly accurate in the catalogue illustration, although the overall tonality is slightly deeper and richer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. It is hinged to the backing board in all four corners. There is extremely fine and stable drying craquelure throughout the red paint, visible in the catalogue illustration, and a further tiny area to the black paint towards the top right hand corner. There is extremely light undulation to the card in the black painted area towards the top right hand corner.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

At once nostalgic and contemporary, the seven lots by Peter Doig in the Afternoon auction present uneasy, dreamlike atmospheres that speak of the mystical osmosis between memory and imagination. Like the cinematic pauses impregnating the Edward Hopper's work, the seemingly inconsequential subjects depicted are charged with a feeling of déjà vu and evoke the lingering reality of a waking dream. He nurtures this tension by transporting familiar images and subjects from a wide variety of film and media sources, into new and unexpected variations. As one reality is transformed into another, the work becomes a vehicle for spontaneous invention and lingers upon the rich seam between abstraction and figuration.

Doig's upbringing in the vast open wilderness of Canada instilled in him an early awareness of man's insignificance within the natural landscape. As the present seven lots reveal, this subject has dominated his work ever since. Inspired by the rich artistic legacy left by Canada's 'Group of Seven' painters, he began to depict modestly humanized landscapes in seminal works like Charley's Space, Iron Hill and Swamped. These early works, which are characterised by their intricately worked impasto surfaces, bring together many different styles of painting overlaid within a single image. One of his most fluid and confident paintings in this vein is Lot 304, Boiler House (1993), in which the rigid geometry of the manmade structure is overpowered by dripping washes of rich forest foliage and framed within a Mondrianesque grid of branchless sinewy trees. Boiler House inspired a larger canvas of the same subject a year later and also closely relates to the series of 'concrete cabin' paintings Doig painted around this time which took as their inspiration the shady realities of Le Corbusier's utopian housing project, Unite D'Habitation.

Although the subjects Doig paints are rarely autobiographical in the word's strictest sense, nearly every work relates to a combination of events and memories from his own life, whether they be lived, dreamed or imagined. Each work tells a story and contains the baggage from his earlier paintings and the lessons learned. What gives his work its characteristic and compelling sense of intimacy is his acute sensitivity to paint's material transience. This enables him to achieve atmospheres ranging from the ominous and suggestive, as in Boiler House and Figures in a Wood, to the airy and sublime as in Untitled (Horse) and Boat to Carrera.

Although his working process often involves revisiting the same subjects and motifs in different combinations and guises, he constantly looks to escape from his mannerisms and regards each of his drawings and studies as individual and autonomous works in their own right. "I'm always trying to find a way of making something less complicated, more fluent, more fluid.... I want to be less constricted by what I have become known for and see if the subject can still come through with a very light treatment, rather than a kind of heaviness." (Peter Doig in conversation with Kitty Scott in: Peter Doig, Phaidon Press 2007, pp. 20-21) The extent to which this is true is apparent when one compares Study for White Canoe, (1993), (Lot 3), and Untitled (100 Years Ago), (2000), (Lot 1), both of which were inspired by an image taken from Sean S. Cunningham's cult horror flick 'Friday the 13^th.' Whereas in Study for White Canoe the landscape seems to melt into a loose patchwork of painterly abstract brushmarks, in the later work, the solitary canoe is thrust towards the foreground to reveal a bearded, ghostly persona said to be an interpretation of one of Doig's favourite musicians, Berry Oakley (bass player and founding member of the Allman Brothers).

Since moving to Trinidad in 2002, Doig has continued to seek out new ways of expanding the material boundaries of his chosen medium. This has often involved turning to the landscape around his home and studio for inspiration, as in Boat to Carrera (Lot 2) and Untitled (Horse) (Lot 13). In a manner comparable to Gauguin's Taihitian paintings, the radiant heat of his colourful, light saturated environment has intensified Doig's already vibrant palette and prompted a more fluid and expressive construction of space. Regarded as one of the most important and influential artists at the beginning of the 21^st century, Doig's work seeks to question the validity and nature of original as well as shared experience in a media saturated world.