Indigenous Art highlighted at the MNBAQ

More than 100 works can be found in the exhibition First days. Indigenous works from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection from the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec. Around fifty artists from 13 nations are grouped by theme in a refined room.

The director of MNBAQJean-Luc Murray, considers that there is catching up to be done in the promotion of First Nations art, not as an ethnographic object, but as an artistic object. This is one of the reasons why we present the exhibition. It is to do better in terms of the dissemination of indigenous artsays the director, recalling the permanent collection of Inuit art which is also found at Pavillon Lassonde.

The MNBAQ has the desire to show the diversity of artistic creation in Canada and to show the depth of the sources of inspiration. Their stories, the beautiful and the less beautiful, the environment and their conception of the worldprecise Jean-Luc Murray.

The corpus casts a wide net and crosses generations. The big picture Wedding in Sodome of Kent Monkman welcomes visitors in the Great Hall, alongside theThunderbird inhabited by the spirit by Norval Morisseau.

Abenaki host, tiktoker and comedian Xavier Watso is spokesperson for the exhibition. He says he is amazed and moved by his first visit. I often say that each nation is unique, has its own culture, its own traditions. To be able to see history through the eyes of my brothers and sisters from other nations, I find it breathtaking.

He wishes that First days be accessible free of charge to indigenous people. It’s happening elsewhere.

The exhibition is on display until April 21, 2025.