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.