Millions of commuters in Toronto drive by it every day, but something about the rainbow tunnel off the Don Valley Parkway, caught artist Peter Doig‘s eye.
Now the painting, called ‘Country-rock (wing-mirror), has set a record for its artist and will be enjoyed by the buyer, who bid by telephone on Monday, and paid $15.5 million C for it, at auction at Sotheby’s in London.
Peter Doig, 55, was born in Scotland but spent most of his formative years in different parts of Canada.
Stephane Aquin is the Curator of Contemporary Art at Montreal’s Musee des Beaux Arts. He curated the recent very successful exhibit of Peter Doig’s work in Montreal. He says the rainbow tunnel painting is from what could be described as Doig’s ‘Canadian period’.
A brilliant interplay between image and reality
The painting, is of a tunnel, on the east-side of Toronto’s Don Valley Parkway, seen from the north-bound lanes. The rainbow was painted over the tunnel in 1972 by teenage artist Berg Johnson, in memory of a friend who had died on the highway. It has been re-painted 20 times since.
Peter Doig’s painting of the painting, is oil on canvas, measuring 195 centimetre by 270 centimetres, and was completed in 1999 in London, England. Stephane Aquin says, “There’s a brilliant interplay between image and reality in lots, in all of Doig’s work and I think that’s what gives it so much resonance.”
The work was consigned by an unnamed collector who had held it since purchasing it from Mr. Doig’s dealer in 1999. Peter Doig will receive a small per centage of the sale price.
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