Peter Doig at Michael Werner London

Contemporary and Old Art Reviews

Peter Doig at Michael Werner London

Postby jasperjoffe » Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:18 am

http://www.michaelwerner.com/exhibition_current_5_press.htm
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/80009a78-fd9a-11e1-8fc3-00144feabdc0.html#axzz27whjZTrZ

I wanted to go the opening of this show, but there wasn't one, it was an openingless opening, the show just started and you could go along and see it if you wanted. Because Doig doesn't show much this seemed especially disappointing and ungenerous, I can understand that he is probably sick of PVs and schmoozing and people sucking up to him and all the rest of it, but art openings are one of the few redistributive parts of the artworld, poor artists can at least have a free drink and a look at some art, and maybe meet someone useful, at the expense of the richer artists and their galleries. The other aspect of the opening is a celebration of some new paintings and saying "here have a drink, maybe a canape (if you're lucky), thanks for coming to see my show." . And just because his paintings sell for millions I am sure not too many people would have been trying to borrow money off him at the PV. But vernissages are of course a tedious cliche, perhaps Mr Doig could have just bought some cakes and left them there for people to Munch on while they looked at his paintings.

Enough of my bitterness. The paintings have some nice bits in like the divers entering the water, and on the whole they couldn't help remind me of Hockney's diving boards. The scuffed surfaces and the layers and all that seemed a bit worn out, I'd suggest he makes a few more paintings (thus decreasing the prices, and the pressure he might feel), and forgets about great art and just mucks around actually painting something rather than faffing about trying to make a great image. Otherwise it's hard to see what all the fuss iabout not having an opening is about.
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Re: Peter Doig at Michael Werner London ADDENDUM

Postby jasperjoffe » Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:29 am

the other aspect of this show, which I cant help joining up to prices and non-openings, is the location, about as fancy as possible, just by the US embassy in Mayfair, you buzz in and walk up some carpeted stairs and some snooty gallery assts ignore you. It says, like not having an opening: YOURE NOT WELCOME.
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Re: Peter Doig at Michael Werner London

Postby Jim » Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:39 pm

I'm all on for free beer but i have to say i think openings are awful.
I really like those paintings.
Whats the deal with showing them at that gallery though? Why not Victoria Miro?
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Re: Peter Doig at Michael Werner London

Postby CAP » Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:36 pm

"I don’t live a lavish lifestyle, but I can travel whenever I want.”


Yeah right.

I've got a bus pass too.

Toeeeeeee-tally agree with you JJ about the aloofness/money/prestige tip. Werner's always been about that. Doig has been wayyyyyy overrated for some time and showing with the Wern is just another step in the blue-chip petrification. Welcome to the old fart's club, ever so exclusive lovey. As Carole Roux notes the paintings grower thinner - literally - become a wishy washy affair - and metaphorically - eke out that lame old photo-trace routine I think we last mentioned a propos Munch. Give me Edvard any day - on a screamer.

I definitely preferred Doig when he was thicker, more confused. But he's always been the tourist really, cruisin' the scene, staying at every resort as if it were the last - what a new romantic!

'This summer, before leaving Trinidad, where his family lives and where he has a studio (he has recently acquired another in New York), Doig unstretched and rolled up his canvases himself, packed them into tubes and dropped them off at Federal Express across the road in Port of Spain.

“Then I had them restretched in London,” he says with a smile. “It’s really quite a good system.'


Yeah an old-fashioned craftsman - willing to pull out a few staples or tacks himself. Blimey. And he took them all the way across the street to the post office! Restretching can be a whole lot harder though - those fucking wedge deals can be a bitch to balance and keep the stretcher square, the canvas taut - just as well that's when the money kicks in. Yeah,, where would we be without professionals for backup? Sounds like my kind of dabbler, complacent, shallow and only there for the easy bits. See you round Mayfair sometime Guv.

Am I being a bit harsh?

Oh yeah. :twisted:
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Re: Peter Doig at Michael Werner London

Postby jasperjoffe » Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:46 pm

not too harsh, I have got an oyster card
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Re: Peter Doig at Michael Werner London

Postby CAP » Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:46 pm

You're spot on with the advice to lighten up as well. All this pondering tradition and greatness is definitely something for the old farts club. Leave history painting to history!

And never mind poor old Michael Andrews!

Try living instead of posing, Pete!


At least Hockney still knows how to have fun. Then again Hockney can actually draw. Even when he throws it away, you know he still kept some. I never get that with Doig - his gifts are really as a colourist and facturist (paint application).

That said, he does have a pretty impressive record collection (Doig not DH) :)
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Re: Peter Doig at Michael Werner London

Postby bobby dazzler » Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:00 pm

Bloody right i say-- doig and his new mayfair chums are puffing on the wrong end of the cigar...
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