About Peter Doig

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

With House of Music, Peter Doig expands his painting into a dimension that had previously remained in the background: the relationship between image, music, and memory. What was once of personal significance becomes here a defining principle of his work – a structure that imbues pictorial space with rhythm and resonance. The point of departure is his exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, where painting was directly linked to sound for the first time. Central motifs of his work reappear, yet their meaning shifts. The lion in particular – drawing on impressions from Trinidad while also charged with the symbolism of the Lion of Judah – takes on new significance. In Painting for a Poet, it appears isolated and present, almost iconic; in Lions (Ghost), the scene becomes more complex: playful movement meets an undercurrent of threat, intensified by art-historical references and deliberately composed color. The works interweave multiple layers – personal memory, cultural symbolism, and painterly tradition – into image spaces saturated with meaning, yet resistant to fixed interpretation. Thus, this group of works both continues and opens up Doig’s practice: toward a pictorial world in which memory, music, and imagination are even more closely intertwined. A space in which meaning can reverberate.

The works of Peter Doig are characterized by their universal relevance and contemporary atmosphere. With his fiercely eclectic style, the painter is able to impressively depict diverse motifs – from winter sports in the Swiss Alps to carefree life in the Caribbean. His emotional imagery combined with his ability to skillfully stage subjects never fails to impact the viewer. Both landscapes and figures come into focus as Doig intertwines art historical and personal references into his compositions. The Zermatt series was not Doig’s first exploration of winter motifs – he painted snowy Canadian landscapes in the 1990s. His enthusiasm for the alpine village of Zermatt and his friendship with Swiss artist Heinz Julen resulted in an extended stay between 2020 and 2021. He drew inspiration from his surroundings as well as ski resort advertisements to create his own interpretation of winter activities.

Intuition is at the heart of Peter Doig’s work process. He describes his approach as a journey whose destination is unknown. That said, a variety of sources – such as film and music – play an equally important role in the creation of his works. Tropical motifs, as seen in the Fischerman, are present in Doig’s most famous compositions. Having lived on the Caribbean Island of Trinidad with his family for many years, the origin of such themes is traceable.

Scottish-born painter Peter Doig is celebrated as one of the most important representational painters working today. Not only have his works been auctioned for millions, but they’ve also been exhibited in the world’s most notable museums, such as Museum of Modern Art in New York and the British Museum in London. Doig has served on the Tate Gallery's artistic board of directors in London and worked as an adjunct professor of painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

VITA

1959	born in Edinburgh, Scotland
	spent his childhood in Trinidad, Canada and London, UK
1980-1983	Wimbledon School of Art
1989-1990	Chelsea School of Art, MA
1995-2000	Trustee of Tate Gallery, London, UK
2005	Professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
2008	Wolfgang Hahn Prize of the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst at Museum Ludwig, Cologne
	lives in Trinidad

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2025–2026	Peter Doig: House of Music, Serpentine South Gallery, London, UK
2023–2024	Peter Doig: Reflections of the Century, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
2023	Peter Doig, The Courtauld Gallery, London, UK
2019	Peter Doig: Paintings, Michael Werner Gallery, London, UK
2017	Peter Doig | Cabins and Canoes: The Unreasonable Silence of the World, Faurschou Foundation, New York, USA
2015	Peter Doig, Michael Werner Gallery, New York, USA Peter Doig, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Palazzetto Tito, Venice, Italy
2014	Peter Doig, Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
2013	Peter Doig: Early Works, Michael Werner Gallery, New York, USA; London, UK No Foreign Lands, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
2012	Peter Doig: New Paintings, Michael Werner Gallery, London, UK
2011	Siegfried + Poster Project, Gallery Met at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, USA; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
2009	Not for Sale, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany Peter Doig: New Paintings, Michael Werner Gallery, New York, USA; Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, USA
2008	Peter Doig, Tate Britain, London, UK; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany
2006	Peter Doig: Studiofilmclub 2003–2006, Ballroom Marfa, Texas, USA Go West Young Man, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Germany
2005	Peter Doig: Works on Paper, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA; The Gallery at Windsor, Florida, USA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada Peter Doig: Studio Film Club, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland
2004	Peter Doig, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany Peter Doig, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany
2003	Charley’s Space, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands Peter Doig, Carré d’Art contemporain de Nîmes, France
2000	Echo Lake Matrix, University of California, Berkeley, USA Peter Doig, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA Peter Doig, Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, USA
1999	Version, Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland
1998	Peter Doig: Blizzard Seventy-Seven, Kunsthalle Kiel, Germany; Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany; Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
1996	Homely, Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, Germany

Group Exhibitions

2026	Songs of Innocence & Experience, part II, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
2025	Flirt and Fantasy: Griffelkunst from Max Klinger to Peter Doig, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Film, Video, Sound – Ringier Collection 1995–2025, Langen Foundation, Neuss, Germany Circa 1995: New Figuration in New York, David Zwirner, New York, USA 44 Years of Print Publishing 1982–Until Now, Knust Kunz Gallery Editions, Munich, Germany
2024	Portrait of a Collection: Selected Works from the Pinault Collection, SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation, Seoul, South Korea
2023/24	Works from a Private Collection – from Bourgeois to Valdés, Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf, Germany
2022	Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA The World as Will and Wallpaper, Le Consortium, Dijon, France
2018	Peindre la nuit, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
2017	House Work, Victoria Miro, London, UK
2015	Forces in Nature, Victoria Miro, London, UK Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Selects from the V-A-C Collection: Natures, Natural and Unnatural, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2014	Private Utopia: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection, Tokyo Station Gallery; Itami City Museum of Art; Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art; Kochi Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand
2013	Cloud Illusions I Recall, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2012	Spectral Landscape, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada A ciel ouvert. Le nouveau pleinairisme, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec, Canada Blickwechsel: Landscape between Threat and Idyll. From New Objectivity to Today, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria
2008	A Guest of Honour: From Francis Bacon to Peter Doig, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and Me, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, USA
2007	The Painting of Modern Life, Hayward Gallery, London, UK Fast Forward: Contemporary Collections for the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, USA Rockers Island – Olbricht Collection, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
2006	Eye on Europe: Prints, Books & Multiples / 1960 to Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA In the Alps, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland Essential Painting, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan How to Improve the World: 60 Years of British Art, Hayward Gallery, London, UK Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA Tate Triennial 2006: New British Art, Tate Britain, London, UK
2005	Ideal Worlds: New Romanticism in Contemporary Art, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany The Triumph of Painting – Part 1, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK The Big Bang, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2004	The Undiscovered Country, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA 54th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA Bearings: Landscapes from the IMMA Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2003	Days Like These: Tate Triennial Exhibition of Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain, London, UK
2002	Dear Painter, Paint Me, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2000	Twisted: Urban and Visionary Landscapes in Contemporary Painting, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
1997	Alpenblick, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
1996	About Vision: New British Painting in the 1990s, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, UK; Museum of Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
1994	Here and Now, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK The Turner Prize Exhibition, Tate Gallery, London, UK Unbound: Possibilities in Painting, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
1993	Twelve Stars, Barbican Centre, London, UK
1991	Barclays Young Artist Award, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
1982	New Contemporaries, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK