Peter Doig

Figurative Art

Beautifully evocative, sometimes soft and complementary, often bold and striking, Doig uses found photography and other existing imagery as a basis for his work, then painting expressively in response to them. A wonderful example, entitled 'Drifter' is a highlight in the Prints & Multiples section of our forthcoming April Contemporary & Post-War Art sale.

Peter Doig is one of the most renowned contemporary figurative painters and for a while held the record for most expensive artwork sold at auction by a living artist. Based across New York, Dusseldorf and Trinidad, his large-scale works often have a dreamy, imaginative quality. Figures seems to fade and emerge out of hot, rich landscape backgrounds – a solo canoeist, a series of cricketers, a group of disjointed friends. Trees entangle, stars twinkle, water reflects and cars pass by, and through it all, rising from the paint, is a depth and the sense of something unsettled. His colours are beautifully evocative, sometimes soft and complementary, often bold and striking, contributing to the overall essence and experience of our viewing.

LOT 217 | § PETER DOIG (SCOTTISH 1959-) | DRIFTER - 2001

Etching and aquatint, 20/46, from 100 Years Ago, published by The Paragon Press, London, signed and numbered in pencil

the sheet 112.5cm x 167.5cm (44.25in x 66in) | £4,000 - £6,000 + fees

View Lot 217 ⇒

Doig uses found photography and other existing imagery such as film stills, newspaper cuttings and art historical references as a basis for his work, then painting expressively in response to them – this approach and his particular painterly technique often generate a sense of slipping and emergence, of things evolving and receding, memory, sensation and remembering. In ‘Drifter,’ there is a sense of the found photograph, with the focal light source bleaching out some of the details. In this haziness, we feel we know this figure but in this moment we can’t remember him, we are overcome with the reaching, the heat and the light.

Auction Information

CONTEMPORARY & POST-WAR ART | PRINTS & MULTIPLES

Lot: 1 to 134 - Wednesday, 7th April 2021 10:00

Lot: 135 to 227 - Wednesday, 7th April 2021 14:00

Live Online

View the auction catalogue ⇒

Prints & Multiples Department

Lyon & Turnbull are delighted to offer Modern and Contemporary editioned prints and multiples within our Contemporary & Post-War Art and MODERN MADE auctions.

At Lyon & Turnbull, we handle prints from a wide variety of artists: from 20th century masters Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Joan Miro through to the British canon of printmakers including Dame Laura Knight, L.S. Lowry, Edward Bawden, all the way to David Hockney and Howard Hodgkin. Our auctions encompass printmaking created up to and including the present day, with artists currently working in these mediums, such as Tracey Emin, David Shrigley, Banksy and the Connor Brothers.