Last summer Woodridge resident Doug Fletcher was visiting his older brother, Bob, in Canada, when Bob mentioned that an artist he’d purchased a painting from in 1976 might now be “kind of famous.” At least, that’s what a friend had told him.
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Bob now does construction work; Doug is a health-care recruiter and interfaith pastor. Neither of them is schooled in art, but upon viewing the painting Doug said he’d do some googling when he got home. A search for “Pete Doige” came up empty. But as Bob’s friend had suggested, Peter Doig—who was born in Scotland, lived in Canada as a teen in the 70s, made his name as an artist in London, and now lives in Trinidad—was in fact very successful. Among other things, he’d broken the auction record for a living European artist when his painting White Canoe sold for $11.3 million at Sotheby’s in 2007.
Looking at images of Doig’s work online, Doug Fletcher says, he was struck by similarities to the painting he’d seen in his brother’s home. “My first reaction was, boy, there’s no mistake, it’s his work.” He sent photos of the desert picture to the Art Institute of Chicago, seeking help in authenticating it, and says museum staff referred him to longtime local gallerist Peter Bartlow.
VeneKlasen responded that the painting “is absolutely not by Peter Doig,” who has “never been to the place that it was supposedly painted.” He followed up with this: “The painting is NOT by Peter Doig. Anyone can see that. . . . Any attempt to attribute this painting to Peter Doig in any way will be dealt with by our attorneys.” (VeneKlasen did not respond to requests for comment for this article.)
That sounds a little odd, but Bartlow wonders if the young artist needed those photos for his applications to art school. “This was the first painting he sold,” says Bartlow, who points out that if the young artist was in fact Peter Doig, “Who knows where he’d be today if Bob didn’t buy it?”
