THE GLOBE AND MAIL
By Kate Taylor
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| Kent Monkman, (Canadian, b. 1965). Welcoming the Newcomers, 2019. |
The Cree artist
Kent Monkman stood under the soaring ceiling of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Great Hall this week wielding a laser pointer. With its beam, he indicated historical characters on the huge canvas behind him, stopping briefly on the figure of a beaver with an olive branch in its mouth as he decoded his latest painting for the assembled media. Europeans came to this continent seeking beaver pelts, he reminded them. Toronto-resident Monkman, a member of Manitoba’s Fisher River Band, is one of a trio of international artists given an unusual assignment by America’s pre-eminent museum: The Met has asked them to address its encyclopedic collection by creating new art for its most prominent spaces. [
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| As Cree artist Kent Monkman unveiled his paintings in a symbolically charged place, Met leaders talked about the need to expand the stories the museum tells. |
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| The Newcomers, 2019, for The Great Hall Commission: Kent Monkman, mistikosiwak (Wooden Boat People), 2019. |
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| Kent Monkman, (Canadian, b. 1965). Resurgence of the People, 2019. |
