The Art Canada Institute invites you to an exclusive event:
Kent Monkman: The Making of a Masterpiece
Tickets Now On Sale. Visit rcmusic.com to purchase your seat.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Koerner Hall, The Royal Conservatory of Music
273 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON
In this talk, Kent Monkman will reveal how he was commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art to create two historic paintings for the exhibition entitled mistikôsiwak (the Cree term for European settlers, translating as “wooden boat people”). An estimated seven million viewers will see mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People), on view until April 2020, which the international press has heralded as “stupendous” (New York Times), “sure to alarm and educate” (The Observer), and works that “do nothing less than turn conventional Western art history on its head” (Artnet News).
Monkman will explain how, using the techniques of a modern atelier, he and his studio created the monumental paintings that address North America’s legacy of colonialism while also referencing and critiquing Western art history. He will discuss the diptych’s portrayal of North American history through an Indigenous lens, and how the composition engages with The Met’s collection of North American Indigenous, American, and European art to revisit the history of European first contact and the future of Indigenous resilience.
The Art Canada Institute is also proud to announce its publication of Revision and Resistance: mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which delves into the genius behind the works through essays written by today’s most prominent voices on Indigenous art and Canadian painting.