Peter Doig's fascination with architectural forms, especially cabins and houses, is a distinctive aspect of his oeuvre, showcasing a profound exploration of memory, imagination, and the interaction between man-made structures and the natural world. His series on cabins, notably the Concrete Cabins and other related works, draw upon his personal experiences and memories, encapsulating themes of solitude, mystery, and the passage of time within these secluded spaces.
The Concrete Cabins series is inspired by Doig's visit to Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Briey-en-Forêt, France. This seminal cycle of paintings, part of Doig’s Turner Prize exhibition in 1994, depicts an idealized vision of modernist architecture veiled by nature. These works juxtapose the utopian ambitions of modernist architecture against the encroaching, sometimes reclaiming forces of the natural environment, blurring the lines between the built environment and the wilderness. Through his manipulation of paint, Doig creates scenes that are both specific in their architectural references and universal in their evocation of a dream-like state, where the boundaries of man-made structures and nature dissolve (Christie's).
Another significant work, The Architect's Home in the Ravine (1991), illustrates a modernist home tucked away in a snow-filled Canadian ravine, almost hidden by dense foliage and snow. This painting is a poetic meditation on vision and perception, as Doig meticulously layers textures and colors to construct a scene that oscillates between reality and abstraction. By employing a wide array of painterly techniques, Doig not only depicts the physical landscape but also invokes the emotional and psychological states associated with the act of seeing and remembering. The house in this painting is modeled after the home of Canadian architect Eberhard Zeidler, located in the Toronto ravine, and represents a physical and metaphorical exploration of isolation and the relationship between the human-made and the natural (Art Dependence).
Doig’s architectural paintings, characterized by their richly textured surfaces and nuanced interplay of light and shadow, reflect a deep engagement with the history of painting as well as a unique perspective on contemporary life. The artist’s works frequently reference art historical motifs and popular culture, weaving together personal memory with broader cultural narratives. Through these paintings, Doig not only reimagines architectural forms but also invites viewers into a contemplative space where the boundaries between the external world and internal experience blur, creating a compelling dialogue between the seen and the unseen, the remembered and the imagined (Saatchi Gallery) (Art Dependence).
Peter Doig’s cabin and house paintings thus stand as a testament to his masterful ability to transcend traditional landscape and architectural painting, offering a window into the sublime interstices of memory, place, and perception.