The CASE of a peculiar ‘Doige’ PAINTING
LANDSCAPE NOT THE WORK OF FAMOUS ARTIST, JUDGE RULES
Peter Doig is a famous painter, an international art-star whose hypnotic, dream-like landscapes sell for as much as $ 20 million. Doig was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, raised in Canada and now resides on the island of Trinidad where he has not, and does not, spell his last name with an “e” at the end.
It is the absence of that “e” that underpinned the verdict of U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman in a Chicago courtroom Tuesday, bringing to an end a multi-milliondollar lawsuit/art world drama that has gripped the international art community for weeks while pitting Doig — and his name — and a painting alleged by his hand — against a retired Canadian prison official named Robert Fletcher.
Fletcher is from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. In the 1970s, he was living in Thunder Bay and working at the local prison farm where, in his telling of events, he met a young inmate named Peter Doige — spelled with an “e”. Doige was a painter, being held for LSD possession. Fletcher took pity on the kid and bought one of his creations in 1976 for $ 100 in the hopes that the wayward young man would use the cash to straighten out his life.
The painting was signed “Pete Doige 76.”
Fletcher kept that canvas. It is a dreamy creation, too, depicting a desert stretching off to its dunes, with red rocks and green cactus colouring an earth- toned landscape. Five years ago a friend took one look at the scene and said it must be by Peter Doig — the Peter Doig — and probably worth millions.
A specialist at Sotheby’s, upon seeing a photograph of the painting, surmised that it was “rare to see such a complete and highly resolved early painting by Doig.”
Doig, meanwhile, took one look at a photograph of the painting and, according to an interview with The New York Times, said: “Nice painting.” And then he added: “Not by me.” His denial cratered the painting’s perceived value. Fletcher, convinced that Doig was indeed the artist, sued for millions.
Authenticity disputes typically arise long after an artist dies and not when the artist is still very much alive, and painting, and often repeating in Doig’s soft and understated accent that is hard to place that he didn’t paint the painting.
“This case is a scam,” Doig told The New York Times in July. “I’m being f orced to j ump t hrough hoops to prove my whereabouts over 40 years ago.”
The hoops were many, especially in court. William F. Zieske, the attorney for the plaintiffs, cross- examined Doig with a line of questioning that careened from the comical to the just plain weird.
Zieske’s website describes him as a lawyer who doesn’t crave “fame” or riches, but simply loves the law and helping clients “achieve their goals cost effectively.”
To achieve those goals Zieske speaks in a baritone-voice that boomed out in court at a decibel level that — as reported by artnet News — prompted Doig to twice ask the attorney: “Are you yelling at me?”
Yelling or not, Zieske persisted. Floating one theory, among others, that the high school yearbook photos from Toronto that Doig offered to the court as proof that he was, indeed, in high school in Toronto and nowhere near Thunder Bay during the period in question, were of Doig’s brother, Andrew.
“Every artist has destroyed his work,” Zieske had said during the lead- up to the trial. “We can’t really get into his mind and say why he looked at this painting and said, ‘I am not going to own that.’ I don’t think anyone can.”
Picasso, after all, denied painting a work that is attributed to him, a denial The Metropolitan Museum, which is in possession of the painting, insists is false. Gilbert Stuart, whose por- trait of George Washington hangs in the White House, went to the grave saying the painting wasn’t by him.
Doig told the court that he didn’t start using the linen canvas the work in question is painted on until late 1979. He also said he has never been in prison, or in Thunder Bay, although he has dabbled with LSD.
A key witness for the Doig camp was a Canadian, a woman, who told the court that the painting was by Peter Doige — with an “e” — her brother, now deceased.
The judge agreed.
FORCED TO JUMP THROUGH HOOPS TO PROVE MY WHEREABOUTS OVER 40 YEARS AGO.