Grand Riviere 2002

Peter Doig made this print, "Grand Riviere," using etching and aquatint. The image depicts a scene of figures perhaps bathing, sitting, or standing, by a river bank. Doig, born in Scotland but raised in Trinidad and Canada, returned to London to study art in the 1980s. His work often returns to the themes of his upbringing, the effects of memory, and the role of nostalgia in how we perceive the world. These themes are reflected in the way Doig pictures Trinidad, not as a series of objective realities, but as a subjective psychological landscape. We might ask ourselves, what is the social function of nostalgia, what work is it doing for Doig? Is this a form of post-colonial commentary? These are questions we might ask, and answer through close looking, but also through historical research, perhaps thinking about the role of institutions like the museum in shaping our perception of Trinidad.