Peter Doig: House of Music

Serpentine presents a new project by Peter Doig that explores the role of music, film, and sites of communal gathering, listening and creative exchange within his practice.

Transforming the gallery into a listening space, House of Music brings together recent paintings and, for the first time, integrates sound into Doig’s work. The exhibition features two sets of rare, restored analogue speakers, originally designed for cinemas and large auditoriums. Music selected by the artist – from his substantial archive of vinyl records and cassette tapes accumulated over decades – plays through a set of ‘high fidelity’ 1950s wooden Klangfilm Euronor speakers.

Each painting in the exhibition engages with music in a different way: some depict spaces where music is played or heard, others show musicians performing or people dancing. Many of the works were created during Doig’s years in Trinidad (2002–21), a period that deepened his relationship with music through sound-system culture and cinema. Blending personal memory, found photographs, and imagined scenes, these paintings are shaped by the wider cultural context of Trinidad. The exhibition will also include new paintings, which Doig created specifically for this show in his London studio.