The Language of Colours and Compositions: Emotional Expression in Stanley Whitney and Peter Doig's Paintings
To speak of contemporary paintings today, they are typically defined as paintings created between the 1960s and the present. Professionals in the industry also assert that contemporary paintings should incorporate references to art history alongside a contemporaneous context within their subject matter, and that the artists should still be alive. Unlike other contemporary art mediums, paintings represent the most traditional two-dimensional visual language and are often regarded as "the expression of ideas and emotions, with the creation of certain aesthetic qualities" (P.D.Owen, 2023) Therefore, within the realm of contemporary art, painting serves as a conduit for artists to articulate their innermost emotions and sentiments. This is accomplished through various artistic elements, such as the use of colours and compositions, deliberate brushstrokes and techniques, and, ultimately, the act of painting itself. This article explores how contemporary painters, Stanley Whitney and Peter Doig, expressively convey their inner feelings through the medium of painting, with a specific focus on their idiosyncratic use of colours and compositions.
Colours
The application of colours is primarily the fundamental element that facilitates the interconnections between the painting, the painters, and the viewers, further aiding the artists in expressing their inner feelings and thoughts. Art critics from the past to modern days have emphasised the significance of colours in paintings. J. Bell stated, "the painter is an individual who relies on his eyes, and when it comes to eyesight, colour is primary." John Ruskin similarly remarked, "We see nothing but flat colours." In colour psychology, our brain processes colours faster than words and shapes, and there is a common correlation between how we perceive colours and how they affect our emotional behaviours, including cultural associations and personal connections.
Specifically, Stanley Whitney's paintings are associated with a plethora of vibrant and saturated tones. For instance, in his work "In Memory of Tomorrow" [see figure 1], he embarks on an exploration of space and colour. Whitney employs multiple colours that complement each other in terms of hue, value, and saturation, with each block of colour serving as a means to comprehend the world, space, and rhythm. In an interview, he once shared his inner feelings regarding the utilisation of these vibrant colours, stating, "I was thinking to myself, I want space like Pollock, but I want colour and depth like Rothko, which seem so opposite of each other. How could I have both?" (S. Whitney, 2020). Driven by purposeful vision and a sense of curiosity, Whitney undertakes an experimental endeavour. The lively and bold colours he employs in this work reflect his inner inquisitiveness to structure rhythms, while being influenced by the Color Field Paintings in New York City during the 1940s. Whitney confesses that he sees colours as the starting point of a painting, using them to create rhythmic structures instead of merely filling colours within borders. He expresses his desire to achieve the depth of colours akin to Mark Rothko's paintings by treating "space" as "colours," ultimately formulating his own style.
Figure 1: Stanley Whitney, In Memory of Tomorrow, 2020, oil on linen, 96 by 96 inches
In contrast, the colours in Peter Doig's paintings differ significantly from Whitney's. Doig described his paintings as having "the sense of light, space, and mood of a painting [that] does not come naturally (or by a known skill) but through working, and often by chance". In one of Doig's landscape paintings [see figure 2], the colour palette is distinct, ranging from hues of orange and brown to a greyish blue. By adopting heightened colours in this piece, Doig tends to evoke a sense of memory and the feeling of "being there". The orange and golden colours in the painting are directly associated with the cognitive sensation of light diminishing during sunsets, which Doig seeks to connect with the natural phenomenon. In addition to the use of gold, Doig has also dedicated time to studying the colours of snow. He explained that while painting snow, he drew inspiration from Claude Monet's work. "I used the way that you perceive things when you are in the mountains... I've used that as a way of accentuating the colours in the paintings, to the extent that they appear seemingly psychedelic". The use of colours in this painting effectively expresses Doig's inner emotions, boldly conveying the evocative sensations of memories through the extreme and exaggerated use of colours.
Figure 2: Orange Sunshine, 1995-1996, oil on canvas, 276 by 201 cm
Compositions
Aside from colours, visual compositions guide both painters and viewers towards a more lucid narrative, helping the deconstruction of the artist's subconscious ideas and emotions through visual components. Inner feelings are cognitive states that can be justified through the expression of composition in a painting. For example, when painters create works consisting of abstract elements or representational subject matter, we can study the forms of the painting and tentatively establish connections between the visual elements that relate to specific historical, cultural, and even spiritual contexts.
In a painting by Stanley Whitney [see figure 3], he expresses his intimate yet nostalgic emotions by creating typifying rectangular geometric grids on the surface. During his interview with Louise Neri, the director of Gagosian, he claimed that living in Rome and Egypt had been the final piece of the puzzle in the evolution and maturation of his work, as if "a paradigm shift occurred". The tectonic, partitioned structure of this painting evokes numerous memories and sentimental feelings within the painter himself, particularly from his time spent in Italy. Whitney is particularly fascinated by the ancient buildings in these two places, stating that "the experience of being there, especially the ancient buildings, brought architecture into my painting". The bricks on the architectural sites, the mosaics on the interior surfaces, and the streets and ruins have all become sources of inspiration for Whitney in creating rectangular grid structures in his paintings [see figure 4]. For him, the process of composing this artwork is similar to retracing the past while also engaging with avant-garde characteristics. Alongside the nostalgic flashbacks, the composition of this painting also expresses the concept of amorphousness and Whitney's admiration for American painters Agnes Martin and Jackson Pollock. Although the blocks and bars in the painting maintain a certain degree of symmetry [see figure 3], the brushstrokes within the space retain a formless intention, depicting a cognitive dissonance between the notion of "freedom" from Pollock and the rigid "grid structure" from Martin.
Figure 3: Stanley Whitney, Untitled, 1997, oil on linen, 72 ¾ by 85 ¼ inches
Figure 4: Stanley Whitney, page from the artist’s sketchbook, 1994, graphite on paper
Similar to Whitney's paintings, Doig's artworks also express his inner feelings of reminiscing about the past and romanticising his childhood memories through the medium of painting. Regarding the composition of his painting "Blue Mountain" [see figure 5], the subject matter of this work is the snow and mountainous landscape, depicting the Canadian scenery that Doig experienced in his youth. Snow holds significant symbolic importance in Doig's early work, representing not only his childhood memories but also his artistic development. Additionally, in this piece, a solitary skier is faintly visible at the centre. Doig began exploring and incorporating skiing figures in his work after serendipitously discovering a monochromatic image in a Toronto newspaper featuring a Japanese ski resort. The motif of skiing in the landscape takes centre stage, and as a result, Doig has recreated a broader perspective from a distance, flattening the perspective compared to his previous work "Ski Jacket" [see figure 6], which depicted concentrated and abstract skiing figures. The flattened landscape and the inclusion of figurative skiing subjects create a sense of abstraction. Simultaneously, Doig expresses his inner feelings of recalling memories and experiences from the places he has lived and the photographs he has seen, ambitiously evoking a distinct snow scene through this composition.
Figure 5: Peter Doig, Blue Mountain,1996, oil on canvas, 200 by 274.9 cm
Figure 6: Peter Doig, SkiI Jacket, 1994, oil on canvas, 290 by 350 cm
Colours and compositions are two significant visual elements in the medium of painting, and two contemporary painters, Stanley Whitney and Peter Doig, respectively utilise both elements to express their inner feelings of reminiscing about their childhood memories and past experiences, while also revealing their ambitious vision for progressing in the art world. In Whitney's works, he presents rebellious statements and reflections, questioning and exploring "colours" as "space" through vibrant and saturated hues, thereby revealing his inner curiosity to create rhythmic colour patterns. In another painting, he recalls memories from when he lived in Rome and Egypt, depicting the architectural structures of symmetrical blocks. The composition of the painting implies a cognitive struggle he experienced while processing art.
Peter Doig's paintings evoke his memories of Canadian mountain landscapes through a unique colour palette, often featuring snow and skiing figures. He utilises golden and orange tones to express remembrance and pay tribute to influential artists like Claude Monet. The composition, including mountains, snow, and trees, holds equal significance for Doig due to his childhood experiences in such surroundings. By examining the colours and compositions in these artists' works, one can explore their intimate inner feelings. Doig once remarked, "All of the paintings have an element of autobiography in them, but I resist making the autobiographical readings overly specific". Painting serves as a partly autobiographical medium, akin to a private journal, allowing artists to express their inner emotions through visual elements that resonate with a broader perception of the world.
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