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The lone figure, face partially concealed and painted from an aerial viewpoint, this continues to be the principal subject-matter of Maxwell Doig’s work. Doig has taken this previously untapped area of figurative painting and made it his own over the past eleven years, constantly striving to explore the many formal possibilities that it opens up.
In employing this unconventional viewpoint, Doig has been heavily influenced by other artistic mediums such as film and photography. The shot from directly above, En plongee, was heavily characteristic of the French Nouvelle Vague. A view that succeeds in being both intimate and detached, it emphasises the stillness of Doig’s solitary figures and subjects - there is no movement only quiet reflection or introspection.
In Doig’s paintings apparently conflicting formal elements are continually complementing one another. The soft, elegant female form set against the linear, angular tiling she lays on, the smoothly painted arch of a body against a harsh, Rothko-esque textured background - these seemingly disparate parts fuse to establish a balanced overall composition. Doig is interested in both the figurative and abstract elements of painting. He recognises that the figurative and abstract need not be mutually exclusive enterprises but can act as constituents which combine on a single canvas to form a coherent final image.
One will also notice how Doig’s utilisation of colour and light has developed since his previous show. These new works contain stronger, bolder colours – the whites, greys and blacks which predominantly populated Doig’s previous canvases have been replaced by vibrant reds and blues. This boldness of colour again serves to accentuate the contrast between figure and background, form and surface.
Maxwell Doig was born in Huddersfield in 1966. He graduated from Manchester School of Art in 1988 with a BA (Honours) degree in Fine Art. Doig pursued his postgraduate studies in Fine Art at the Slade School of Art between 1988 and 1990. He was awarded the Villiers David Prize in 1997.
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