About the person
born 1959 in Edinburgh
lives and works in London and Trinidad
After growing up in Trinidad and Canada, Peter Doig decided in 1979 to move to London where he studied painting between 1980 and 1983 at Wimbledon School of Art as well as St Martin’s School of Art. From 1989 to 1990 he studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design. From 1995 to 2000 he worked as a curator at Tate Gallery in London and moved to Trinidad in 2002 together with his family in order to completely focus on painting. From 2005 to 2018 he was a professor of painting at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf.
“Doig’s paintings on one hand reference the history of painting and on the other hand are deeply rooted in everyday life. Starting points for his paintings are often travel brochures, newspaper images, film stills or private snapshots. They represent the different environments and societies the artist has lived in: the frozen lakes of his Canadian childhood, the glittering metropolis London and finally the Caribbean landscapes and urban sceneries of Port of Spain on the island of Trinidad. In his paintings, whose calm seems to tip over at any moment, memories, biography, popular images and narration condense into dreamlike sequences.”
Exhibition text: PETER DOIG, 09.10. - 04.01.2009; curated by Judith Nesbitt /Katharina Dohm. http://www.schirn.de/PETER_DOIG_2.html
About the artwork
Nachdem Doig 2002 nach Trinidad gezogen war, gründete er zusammen mit dem lokalen Künstler Che Lovelace den StudioFilmClub in seinem Atelier in Port of Spain. Der Club fungierte als privates Programmkino für Freunde und die lokale Kunstszene. Da es kein Budget für Werbung gab, begann Doig, für fast jede wöchentliche Vorstellung ein individuelles Plakat von Hand zu malen. Das erste Poster entstand „aus Versehen“ für den Film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus). Doig nahm eine verworfene Papierarbeit, die ihn an eine Filmszene erinnerte, und beschriftete sie spontan mit dem Filmtitel.
Die Poster wurden oft kurz vor den Filmvorführungen hastig angefertigt. Er verwendete dabei Öl, Aquarell, Pastell oder Kohle auf großformatigem Papier. Die Motive sind keine bloßen Kopien kommerzieller Plakate. Sie basieren auf: Schlüsselszenen aus dem Gedächtnis oder von Standbildern, Zitaten originaler Filmposter und persönlichen Assoziationen und Metaphern zum Filminhalt.