EDINBURGH.- The National Galleries of Scotland announced a landmark acquisition of 67 prints by Scottish artist Peter Doig, alongside a commitment that one edition of all future prints made by the artist will also join the national collection. This is the first time that the National Galleries of Scotland has secured not only an artist's entire print collection to date, but all prints to be created in the future.


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This monumental addition to Scotland’s national collection celebrates Doig’s personal connection to Scotland, as well as his status as a leading artist of his generation. To mark this significant acquisition a selection of prints have gone on display for free at National Galleries Scotland: Modern One in Edinburgh. Visitors will be able to explore works relating to Morning, Paramin a 2016 book made in collaboration between Doig and the St Lucian poet Derek Walcott.

Peter Doig is a contemporary painter known for his dreamlike landscapes that blur observation and memory, referencing personal experiences, popular culture, and art history alike. Born in Edinburgh in 1959, Doig moved to Canada as a child, and since 2002 has lived and worked in Trinidad. In 2021, Doig relocated his main studio to London, which is now his principal residence. His breakthrough as a painter was in 1990, while the artist was studying towards a master’s degree at Chelsea School of Art. His inventive style, sensuous colour palette and suggestive imagery set him apart from the conceptualism which then dominated much of contemporary art. Today, Doig is rightly credited with having reinvigorated the medium of painting internationally.

The National Galleries of Scotland has been working in partnership with the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) since 2018 to enable this gift from Doig through the CAS Great Works scheme, supported by the Sfumato Foundation. The ambition of the Great Works scheme is to ensure that major artworks, which might otherwise be inaccessible to gallery audiences, are able to enter public collections during the lifetime of the artist. Doig is one of the most highly regarded painters working anywhere in the world, and it is only thanks to this partnership with CAS that the acquisition is possible.

A key consideration of the Great Works scheme is the relationship of the artist to the location of the gallery receiving the acquisition, giving artists a lasting presence in a place that is of particular significance to them. This acquisition will provide a unique resource for anyone wanting to research Doig and will mean that Scotland’s national collection will represent the artist across his whole career. Doig has also generously agreed not only to donate all of his printed work to date, but to give one edition of all future prints too. This incredibly unique agreement ensures that Scotland’s national collection will hold the most comprehensive representation of the artist’s graphic work anywhere in the world.

The prints Doig makes are an essential element of his practice. Working out many of the details of his paintings in print, he is a tireless innovator and image maker across both mediums. The artist has made prints from the very beginning of his career, and continues to do so now, having just installed all the equipment he needs in his London studio. As well as being one of the most powerful painters stylistically, Doig is also a master print maker, employing a number of techniques that makes his prints as interesting and evocative as his paintings.

While the display at Modern One is only a portion of the works that will be added to the national collection, it gives a fascinating insight into the artist’s work. The one room display explores Doig’s time in Trinidad, where he worked for many years. During this time, he became friends with the St Lucian poet Derek Walcott (1930 – 2017) and the 28 etchings exhibited at Modern One form a lasting expression of this friendship. Morning, Paramin, a book of poems written by Walcott in direct response to Doig’s paintings, was published in 2016. Walcott describes both the paintings and Doig’s complex relationship with place in his poems. There is an empathy between the two men: “because Art can make us love two countries with one heart, not separately either, but blent”. The prints selected by Doig for the book are in turn a response to the poems. They suggest a process of looking again, of re-examination, of a reflection on grief and loss, as well as a sense of place and atmosphere. They stand as a memorial to an intimate, creative friendship and a dialogue between painter and poet.

This unprecedented donation facilitated by CAS further develops the National Galleries of Scotland’s long-standing relationship with the artist. A major retrospective of Doig’s work was held at National Galleries Scotland: National in 2013. The exhibition surveyed Doig’s paintings and works on paper following the artist’s move to Trinidad, placing particular emphasis on the artist’s approach to serial motifs and recurring imagery. At the time Doig said: ‘I left Scotland as a child as many of my generation did; however I know Edinburgh, the city where I was born, through many visits as a child and youth. To be able to exhibit my paintings in the magnificent rooms of the National Galleries is a great great honour." In 2021 the National Galleries of Scotland also acquired an important early oil painting, At the Edge of Town 1986-8, thanks to the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. Making this recent and significant acquisition of Doig’s prints all the more meaningful for the collection and the artist.

Peter Doig said: "I am delighted and deeply grateful that the National Galleries of Scotland will be the custodians of my prints."

Simon Groom, Director of International & National Partnerships at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “Peter Doig is one of the most consistently inventive artists working anywhere in the world today. The works reveal a transforming vision of the world, steeped in a sense of beauty and mystery, rich in their imaginative suggestion yet remaining grounded in the real. This remains as true of his prints, which have been an essential element of his practice from the very beginning of his career.

“We are indebted to Peter and the Contemporary Art Society for their generosity and great vision, in enabling the National Galleries of Scotland to represent Scotland’s greatest contemporary artist across his whole career, and to create an internationally unique resource that will be accessible for exhibition, loan and study now and for future generations.”

Caroline Douglas, Director, Contemporary Art Society, said: “It is absolutely wonderful to see the first group of prints from this remarkable, groundbreaking gift of work go on display in Edinburgh. Peter Doig is one of the most important artists working anywhere in the world today and print making lies at the core of his practice. We are delighted that National Galleries Scotland: Modern in Edinburgh will be the home to this remarkable body of work, which will be a resource for artists, scholars and art lovers forever more.”


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