Kent Monkman
KENT MONKMAN "HELPING THE HELPLESS", 2017
Kent Monkman (b.1965) is one of Canada's most acclaimed and notorious multidisciplinary artists today.
Over the last 15 years, Monkman has developed a provocative, amusing, and inimitable body of work that hijacks historical Canadian images by infusing landscapes and pictorial scenes with homoerotic revisionist anarchy.
"Helping the Helpless" comes from the beginning of Monkman's series "The Rendezvous" This body of work depicts an annual occurrence when Indigenous people and early settlers would gather in the wilderness to celebrate the arrival of spring after months of winter isolation. Lasting for weeks at a time, these festivities occurred throughout the Rocky Mountains, beyond the presence (and harsh morality) of European settlements during the early to mid-19th century.
This was a notable period in Canadian history, marking the demise of some co-existence and the last chapter before the unrelenting expansion and dominance of European religion and communities. In 2017 Monkman began this series of paintings imagining these spring Bacchanalia. While trade was an important element of these celebratory weeks, revelry and sexuality also played a significant role. Monkman highlights and romanticizes this era for the freedom and acceptance of gender fluidity and individual expression before it was eradicated or repressed by colonialism.
In this artwork, an Indigenous man extends his arms in a downward gesture, his stance firm and deliberate. Opposite him, a naked figure—presumed to be of European descent—sits twisted on the ground, relying on the support of his counterpart.
While this painting is unmistakably Monkman, it is also a distinctive anomaly. Rarely does the artist paint figures in this scale or allow them to dominate an entire composition. Often his homoerotic depictions are tinged with humor, fantasy ,and violence - and/or the presence of his alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. Here there is a remarkable tenderness and simplicity. Perhaps this painting is a nod to the Pre-Raphaelites?
The National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian are just a few of the institutions that have Monkman's work in their permanent collection.
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"Helping the Helpless" from the series "The Rendezvous"
Canada, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
Signed and dated verso
48"H 60"W
Very good condition.
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