Peter Doig's Chronological Retrospective at Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

The Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris presented a retrospective of Peter Doig (Edinburgh, 1959) from May 30 to September 7, 2008. The exhibition was arranged chronologically to trace the slow maturation of his themes, with two additional rooms featuring a substantial selection of preparatory drawings, inks, and watercolors. The museum's basement labyrinth enhanced Doig's hallucinatory and melancholic universe. Key motifs included pirogues, ghostly silhouettes, abandoned buildings, frozen expanses, and tropical marsh landscapes. Large canvases engaged viewers in a continuous play between reality and its reflection, with free brushwork, drips, and layered transparencies reminiscent of Monet's late Water Lilies. Doig's painting references Fauvism, Impressionism, and Expressionism, but later works like 'Man Dressed As Bat' (2007) shed these influences for simpler compositions and poorer textures. The artist expressed a desire for his painting to become ephemeral and almost transparent. Notable works included 'Ski Jacket' (1994), evoking Bruegel's 'The Hunters in the Snow', and '100 Years Ago', acquired by the museum in 2002, depicting a man in a pirogue against an island-prison near Trinidad. The exhibition was reviewed by Jean-Luc Morel.