Posted June 19, 2025
The Denver Art Museum exhibits the first major survey in the U.S. for celebrated Cree artist Kent Monkman (Fisher River Cree Nation, b. 1965), in partnership with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors will be on view through August 17, 2025, in the museum’s Anschutz Gallery on level 2 of the Hamilton Building and is included in general admission.
Based in New York City and Toronto, Canada, Monkman is known for his provocative interventions into Western European and American art history. Through his painting, Monkman pushes forward an understanding of the lived experiences of Indigenous people today while confronting colonial injustices. Featuring 41 monumental works, History is Painted by the Victors draws from the DAM’s extensive collection of Monkman’s work alongside newly created works and loans from other institutions and private collections, including the monumental mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) diptych from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, touring for the first time.
“We are extremely proud to bring the first major show in the U.S. to our community in partnership with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,” said Christoph Heinrich, Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of the Denver Art Museum. “Visitors from Denver and around the country will have the unique opportunity to connect with Kent’s staggering history paintings rooted in the resiliency of Indigenous communities in the face of injustice.”
History is Painted by the Victors explores Kent Monkman’s use of history painting as a contemporary genre to highlight relevant issues such as climate change and environmental protection, the impact of governmental policies on historically marginalized communities, generational trauma, and Two-Spirit and other queer identifying communities’ visibility and pride.
Monkman frequently confronts difficult subjects in his large-scale history paintings ranging from the absence and erasure of Indigenous artists in the art history canon, to the representation of 2SLGBTQ+ people in art, and the ongoing project to decolonize bodies and sexuality while challenging gender norms and generational trauma inflicted by forced residential and boarding school experiences. History is Painted by the Victors explores several key moments in Monkman’s career, including the inception of Monkman’s provocateur alter ego—Miss Chief Eagle Testickle— whom he often places in his canonical landscape and genre paintings of 19th century North America as well as The Rendezvous series, which focuses on the “golden age” of settler/Indigenous relations.
“The DAM has supported and acquired Kent’s boundary-breaking work for over a decade, and we are proud to be the first museum in the U.S. to present this broad examination of his career, creating an opportunity for American audiences to experience Kent’s monumental art firsthand.” said John P. Lukavic, the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Native Arts and Head of the Native Arts Department at Denver Art Museum.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the DAM will publish a catalog with DelMonico Books featuring contributions from Lukavic and co-curator Léuli Eshrāghi (Seumanutafa and Tautua Sāmoan), Curator of Indigenous Practices at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts along with some of today’s leading scholars including Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone), National Book Award Winner and Professor of History and American Studies at Yale; Brenda J. Child (Ojibwe), Northrop Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota; Adrienne Huard (Anishinaabe), Two-Spirit performer, scholar, curator, and writer; Bryan C. Keene, Associate Professor of Art History and Theatre at Riverside City College and former Associate Curator of Manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum; and Patricia Norby (P’urhépecha), Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
For museum information, visit www.denverartmuseum.org or call 720-865-5000.
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