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Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre

Two figures stand at the gate of a multi-colored pathway, stars fill the sky.

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  • Two figures stand at the gate of a multi-colored pathway, stars fill the sky.

Date:

2000/2002

Artist:

Peter Doig
Scottish, born 1959

About this artwork

Peter Doig creates dreamlike, psychologically charged landscapes that display a peculiar blend of abstraction and representation. Combining a hallucinatory palette with expressionist brushwork, his paintings have a mysterious, often melancholic air. Doig works exclusively from found images, drawing inspiration from film stills, newspaper clippings, personal photo albums, record album covers, and the work of earlier artists such as Edvard Munch and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The image of the two men in Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre derives from a photograph taken when the artist was working as a dresser at the London Coliseum. One night, after a production of Igor Stravinsky’s burlesque ballet Petrouchka (1911), Doig and a friend donned costumes from the performance and comically posed for a snapshot. The artist initially used the photo as the basis for a figure study; he then superimposed the two figures on a landscape he borrowed from an antique postcard, which depicts the vista from an old German tavern, Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre. In Doig’s version, the view has undergone strange chromatic shifts, resulting in a fantastical, nocturnal scene that resembles a theatrical backdrop. The men at the gate are an otherworldly presence; the winding path behind them seems to lead to another realm beyond the edge of the painting.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Peter Doig

Title

Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre

Place

Scotland (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 2000–2002

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

196 × 296 cm (77 1/8 × 116 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Nancy Lauter McDougal and Alfred L. McDougal

Reference Number

2003.433

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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