Figures in a Wood

More than horror, which only faintly perfumes Figures in a Wood, there is a sense of nostalgia. And it is this disjointed nostalgia that is so affecting in Peter Doig's works. Somehow, the pictures appear not only to show the old photographs of strangers, but also images that relate to our own memories. He has taken sources, some of them from his own life, that somehow gain some universality in their translation into oils. The faces blur and become the faces that we ourselves could recognise; the scenery changes and becomes scenery that relates possibly to our own lives. And yet, through it all, Figures in a Wood appears indelibly Canadian. Although Doig left Canada to pursue his studies in art in London, his works became suffused with a certain Canadian quality. It is this memory of home that somehow the artist translates to the viewer. We too are homesick when confronted with Doig's paintings, which themselves are often based on photos that have merely chanced their way into his life and his studio.