A lucky group of Dukes Club members were treated to a surprise meeting with exhibiting artist, Peter Doig at the Courtauld Gallery on Thursday afternoon.
Candida Cave, art historian extraordinaire, first led the group on a short tour of the Courtauld’s LVMH Great Room, which houses some of the finest examples of Impressionist and Post-impressionist art in the world and quite full to bursting with Cezanne’s, Renoir’s, van Gogh’s, Gaugin’s, Manet’s, Monet’s and more.
After this whistlestop tour, the group moved on to the Peter Doig exhibition, where they were met by the smiling artist himself, who modestly walked them through his artistic process and how his twenty years in Trinidad influenced his work. Starting with the story of the film and racquet ball evenings held in is dusty art studio in a disused rope factory, and how they influenced his self-portrait ‘Night Studio’.
Moving through the paintings, one becomes aware that there is a sense of music and sound that permeates Peter’s work and he spoke about his need for music when he works. How important it is for him to cut out other distracting thoughts.
He shared how the piece, ‘Music (2 trees)’ inspired by a poem written by his friend, West-Indian poet, Derek Walcott and painted as an ode to the Calypso and Soca music styles of Trinidad, was painted straight from his imagination, with no photographic or other source, and how this is the way he hopes his work process will progress.
The group learnt that the ethereal almost ghostly ‘House of music (Soca Boat)’ was based on an old photograph of fishermen holding aloft their catch and transformed by Doig into a tribute to a song by Shadow, one of Trinidad’s most famous Soca musicians, who is also immortalised in his work ‘Music Shop’ where his dramatic almost mystical figure dominates. Peter spoke of his admiration for this profound Trinidadian lyricist with his almost folkloric reputation as a man of the people of Trinidad.
The haunting luminosity of Doig’s ‘Night Bathers’ which features a beach scene in the moonlight caught the eye of attendees eager to hear Doig’s story behind it. He revealed that the figure of a woman ‘moon bathing’, as Doig puts it, was originally inspired by a photo on a Cuban record cover. Doig’s journey with this work (as with many of his paintings) was full of stops and starts and changes in direction. The work began with the woman, and the surroundings gradually came into being around her. During the process, he came to realise that he lacked connection with the figure so he changed her face to that of his wife’s and the work took on more meaning.
As he reflected on the journey of this artwork, he explained how the colours and shimmering light in the painting were inspired by a night with a friend on a boat when the sea was lit up with the glow of phosphorescence.
Peter elaborated on his process and stories as he guided the group through the exhibition. He delved into the importance of pigments and binders for achieving depth and vividness of colour, and admitted his slowness in completing his works led to him finishing two of the paintings the night before they were collected for the exhibition. This included the portrait of his daughter, ‘Alice at Boscoe’s’ where she is depicted lying in a hammock overhung with rich foliage.
Finally, the exhibition’s signature image, Alpinist, did not disappoint. The lone skier with his harlequin clothing stands out in stark contrast to the icy blues and pale white palette of the landscape behind him. A truly mesmerising piece that entranced one and all.