He has agreed to gift his entire collection of prints to the gallery of modern art in his home city, as well as all future prints he creates at his studio in London.
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The National Galleries of Scotland – which describes Doig as “one of the most highly-regarded painters working anywhere in the world” – will mark the gift by putting a selection of the 67 prints it has acquired on display at the gallery from Saturday.
It has hailed the “unprecedented donation” by the 66-year-old artist as a celebration of “Doig’s personal connection to Scotland, as well as his status as a leading artist of his generation.”
The gift has been announced 12 years after Doig, whose paintings have sold for more than £15 million at auction, was honoured by the National Galleries with a retrospective of his work, which was the first major exhibition of his work in his home city.
The National Galleries said its new acquisition would provide it with a “unique resource” for anyone wanting to research the work of the artist. It said Doig was renowned for his “dreamlike landscapes that blur observation and memory, referencing personal experiences, popular culture, and art history alike”.
It has been working with the Contemporary Art Society to enable the gift through a “Great Works” scheme aimed at ensuring that major works of art which might otherwise be inaccessible in museums or galleries enter public collections.
The National Galleries has an early oil painting by Doig, At the Edge of Town 1986-8, in its collection after acquiring it in 2021.
Born in Edinburgh in 1959, Doig spent much of his upbringing in Trinidad and Canada, but made regular visits with his family to the Scottish capital.
Speaking at the time of his 2013 exhibition, Doig said: “I left Scotland as a child as many of my generation did; however I know Edinburgh, the city where I was born, through many visits as a child and youth. To be able to exhibit my paintings in the magnificent rooms of the National Galleries is a great, great honour.”
Doig moving to London to study art in 1979, made a breakthrough as an artist in 1990 and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1994. He returned to Trinidad to live and work in 2002 and relocated his main studio to London five years ago.
Doig’s profile rose dramatically in 2007 when one of his paintings, White Canoe, sold at auction for $11.3 million, setting a new record for a living European artist.
The work going on display at the modern art gallery from this weekend is drawn from Doig’s time living and working in Trinidad, and the friendship he formed there with the poet Derek Walcott.
Simon Groom, director of international and national partnerships at the National Galleries, said: “Peter Doig is one of the most consistently inventive artists working anywhere in the world today. The works reveal a transforming vision of the world, steeped in a sense of beauty and mystery, rich in their imaginative suggestion yet remaining grounded in the real.
“This remains as true of his prints, which have been an essential element of his practice from the very beginning of his career.
“We are indebted to Peter and the Contemporary Art Society for their generosity and great vision, in enabling National Galleries to represent Scotland’s greatest contemporary artist across his whole career, and to create an internationally unique resource that will be accessible for exhibition, loan and study now and for future generations.”
Caroline Douglas, director of the Contemporary Art Society, said: “It is absolutely wonderful to see the first group of prints from this remarkable, groundbreaking gift of work go on display in Edinburgh.
“Peter Doig is one of the most important artists working anywhere in the world today and print making lies at the core of his practice.
“We are delighted that the gallery of modern in Edinburgh will be the home to this remarkable body of work, which will be a resource for artists, scholars and art lovers forever more.”