Some of the main references in both
paintings are of indigenous people as
dying, becoming irrelevant and you know
these were popular themes in the 19th
century. It really sort of gave people
permission to kind of come in and and
dispossess us of our lands. My name is
Kent Monkman. I'm Cree. I'm a member of
Fisher River personation in Manitoba,
living in Toronto for some time. I'm
standing here in the Great Hall at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
and I'm the recipient of this inaugural
commission for works in the Great Hall
and I have two paintings here a diptych
it's called mistikôsiwak which is a
Cree word to mean the French people or
more broadly for European people. These
are two paintings that explore themes of
you know the migrating populations of
European settlers that arrived here on
Turtle Island in North America and how
they displaced First Nations people.
There are many themes in these paintings
that also reference romantic ideas that
those settler populations had about
First Nations people and how those were
perpetuated through their sculptures
through their paintings so I'm
referencing those sculptures and
paintings in my work.
Kent's work it's bold, it's big, it's
audacious, and it just seems right at
home in this big, bold, audacious space
that is highly symbolic. This is new for
the United States I feel like they're a
bit behind Canada in terms of how they
think of a representation of Indigenous
points of view in museums you know
institutions in Canada we have and we've
had Indigenous curators in museums more
recently so I think it represents a
shift for museums in the United States
and it's exciting to see that happen you
know. Museums often change very slowly so this
is like you know kind of a huge shift in
terms of how it might you know send a
very strong and powerful message to
Indigenous artists but also to the the
very vast audience of the Met. A lot
appealed to the museum about Kent's work
one aspect of the appeal had to do with
his investigation, his real interrogation
of the history of art. The Met is really
taking a look at itself about our
history and the kinds of stories we
need to be telling and Kent's
work tells some of the stories that we
needed to be telling. I took inspiration
from those heartbreaking photographs of
migrating populations you know set
afloat on these little often too small
boats you know hundreds of people
crammed into these boats going to
somewhere better. I love the old masters
I love Rubens. I love Titian. I love Delacroix. You know and
these were striking images to me because it was about you know this tension. With
these large-scale paintings really what
I'm trying to do is to authorize
Indigenous experience both historic and
contemporary into this canon of art
history. I mean, you know, we've been
erased from the art history of this of
this continent
you know the settler artists they came
here you know they had their own vision
of this continent which was essentially
an empty landscape and so our points of
view our perspectives have never really
been in this canon of art history.
 
