Posted at 1:15 p.m
After declaring on Wednesday morning that the National Gallery of Canada was an independent institution, Pablo Rodriguez said he had expressed to Ms. Lyon his “deep concern” about events at that museum, which is undergoing a process of decolonizing its administration and programming and continued to fire key executives.
“I have asked him for a quick response on the solutions that the board intends to propose,” said the minister, adding that he was concerned about the prevailing climate at the NGC and wished the board “to explain what is happening”.
In recent days, players in the Canadian art world, such as NGC’s former director Marc Mayer, collector Pierre Lassonde, or curators and art historians such as Diana Nemiroff, have expressed their astonishment at the way NGC is currently being run. ask for clarification.
OTTAWA TOURISM PHOTO
The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa with the sculpture Maman by Louise Bourgeois.
Despite multiple media requests, the chair of the board of directors, Françoise Lyon, a Montreal businesswoman who is president and senior partner of private equity firm DGC Capital, declined to be interviewed to explain why the museum opened on November 17 sacked Associate Director and Chief Curator Kitty Scott, Curator of Indigenous Art Greg Hill, Director of Curatorial and Technical Research Stephen Gritt, and Senior Communications Manager Denise Siele.
The museum refuses to give explanations for these dismissals, propagates a policy of confidentiality and proposes the application of a strategic plan aimed at “decolonizing” the museum institution. The situation at the NGC was the subject of heated debates in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Bloc member for Drummond, Martin Champoux, was particularly critical of the fact that the NGC had once been reluctant to organize an exhibition dedicated to Riopelle to mark his centenary, an exhibition that will actually take place next October.
“Riopelle was, according to the National Gallery of Canada, ‘an old white artist’ and, according to La Presse, their director-general did everything possible, Mr. President, to prevent an exhibition being held in his honor and created Deputy Champoux. Can the minister tell us when his government decided to exclude the fine arts from the Museum of Fine Arts vocation? »
Minister Rodriguez replied that his colleague was “on site”. “It is obvious that we are going to celebrate Riopelle, Mr President, Riopelle is a giant among giants, one of the greatest artists among us. The government was there and will be there to celebrate this great artist, Riopelle. »
PHOTO ROBERT MAILLOUX, THE PRESS
Jean Paul Riopelle in 1985.
Deputy Champoux continued with a second intervention: “A quick call from the Minister of Heritage of the Museum [des beaux-arts du Canada] could stop that drift because it doesn’t do anything on the National Gallery of Canada’s record, he said. Either he agrees, or the management of the art museum obeys an order from the minister. Because what is happening to the museum, Mr. President, is that they literally make it a tool of ideological propaganda and not a place to preserve and enhance the fine arts […] When will the minister stop acting as minister of propaganda and act as minister of heritage? »
Pablo Rodriguez responded by saying he was hurt by the comment and assuring the Bloc MP that the Riopelle exhibition would go ahead. Reached by La Presse, collector, patron and businessman Pierre Lassonde also recounted how former NGC Director General Sasha Susa, who left the institution last June, had done everything to oppose a tribute to Riopelle in Ottawa to object.
“She tried several times to destroy the exhibition,” says Mr. Lassonde. It was only thanks to the intervention and urging of the Riopelle Foundation that she finally agreed to organize it, but was reluctant. An exhibition of the internationally most important Canadian painter was unthinkable! But she wanted to cut budgets, organize the exhibition in a small space, reduce the number of works to be exhibited. It was wonderful. It took him a year and a half to appoint the curator…” Art historian Sylvie Lacerte will be autographing the Riopelle exhibition in Ottawa.