Back in the Nineties and early Noughties, when painting appeared to have been rendered obsolete by the dead sharks and unmade beds of YBA conceptualism, Peter Doig was almost alone in creating paintings that were at once bracingly contemporary and rooted in his medium’s rich and complex traditions. The Scottish-born, Canadian-raised, Trinidad-based painter’s slightly sinister, multi-referential paintings of lakes, canoes and Caribbean jungles proved irresistible to both gallery-goers and collectors, with the sale of his White Canoe for $11.3 million in 2007 making him the world’s most expensive living artist.
Now, with painting resurgent – or so I’m frequently told – Doig is cited as a prime influence by current hot names such as Hurvin Anderson (shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize) and Michael Armitage (currently winning plaudits at the South London Gallery). So this show of recent work is an opportunity for the 58-year-old Doig to demonstrate that he is not just an éminence grise for the young guns of today, but still a major force in his own right....