Maxwell Doig 2023

The paintings of Maxwell Doig are far more complex than is first apparent. They are the product of a combination of the artist’s inherent skills, the rich lineage of drawing through careful observation and a visionary perspective in visual art that finds its roots in the Romantic Age. Their unique brilliance lies in Doig’s delicate and subtle handling of his subjects within the given limits of his canvas, a combination of personal reflection and the technical invention of which is so idiosyncratic to his practice of marrying what is real and what is invented, drifting seamlessly between what is observed and what is remembered. Ontologically speaking, they question simple scenes taken from everyday life, interpreting both common and unusual subjects on a modest scale that relate a first-person account of the artist’s lived experience.