Peter Doig was born in Scotland in 1959 but would grow up in Canada. His imagination is full of landscapes – ever since his entrance onto the art scene, this British painter has been seen as a master of post-modern painting. Peter Doig came out with his “Canoe” series in the early 90s, and it was a low budget film that inspired him to create this icon. Friday the 13th came out in 1980 – with few exotic decors or famous actors, the film cost $700,000 to make and brought in $17,000,000, becoming a cult classic for the 40-50 year old generation in the meantime.
White Canoe is a sort of snapshot of a scene that comes at the end of the apocalypse, the most terrifying moment in the film. Reproduced in a magistral 200 x 240 cm format, an impression that precisely but subtly mixes calm and panic is given off by the piece. It is both troubling and fascinating. The artist would later admit that the scene reminded him of the essence of Edward Munch. White Canoe is expertly worked – in the middle, a phantom-esque canoe floats on a lake obscured by the night. In 2005, during the artist’s second exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, this painting made the cut for the final selection.
On the evening of February 2, 2007, White Canoe became one of the most prestigious sales ever for Sotheby’s. This meticulous commentary by the artist easily assimilates into the dexterity of other great painters in art history, from Van Eyck to Velazquez to Monet, Pollock, and Richter. Sotheby’s even gave it a special place by putting it on the cover of their catalogue. It wouldn’t take much more to get bids coming in, with a final sale of £ 5.7 million. Peter Doig thus became Europe’s most valuable living artist. After years of working outside the art world, while most of Great Britain’s artists were interested in concepts and installations, Doig was suddenly in style. This painting that he created during his studies at the Chelsea Art School would definitively bring him into art history.
Just as 100 years old, White Canoe exudes a powerful atmosphere that awakens the fascination for images, time and emotions. Themes that are explored by Tinguely in works of arts such as the Cyclop and the Fontaine des automates.
Leave a Reply