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J. W. Waterhouse

Garden of Enchantment

October 2, 2009 to February 7, 2010
$ Admission Fee
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion
Level 3

From October 2, 2009, to February 7, 2010, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will host the largest-ever retrospective of works by the celebrated British artist John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). J. W. Waterhouse: Garden of Enchantment is the first large-scale monographic exhibition on Waterhouse’s work since 1978 and the first to feature his entire artistic career. This retrospective features some eighty paintings that are among the finest and most spectacular of the artist’s production, on loan from public and private collections in Australia, England, Ireland, Taiwan, the United States and Canada. It will also present many of the artist’s attractive studies in oil, chalk and pencil.

Global Warning: Scenes from a Planet under Pressure

Works from the Montreal Museum’s Collection of Contemporary Art

Free Free Admission
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion
Level S2

On November 10, 2009, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts unveiled new galleries of contemporary art. By transforming and reallocating the galleries that run under Sherbrooke Street between the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion and the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion, it has doubled the previous gallery space, to display its extensive and diversified permanent collection. From now on, the collection will be presented thematically, with a new installation each year. Global Warning: Scenes from a Planet under Pressure is the inaugural exhibition for these galleries and this new approach.

Collection Loto-Québec, 1979-2009

Selected Works

Free Free Admission
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion
Level S2

To emphasize the contribution made by Loto-Québec in promoting contemporary Quebec art for the past thirty years, the Museum presents a selection of works from Loto-Québecs’ collection.

The Fantastical World of Érik Desmazières

September 10, 2009 to January 3, 2010
Free Free Admission
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion
Level S2

Presented from September 10, 2009, to January 3, 2010, the inaugural exhibition at the Museum’s new Graphic Arts Centre, The Fantastical World of Érik Desmazières, is Canada’s first retrospective of the prints of one of the most fascinating and distinguished contemporary printmakers, the French artist Érik Desmazières. Approximately fifty prints are exhibited in the galleries covering the breadth of his achievements, from his earliest prints, such as The Astronomers of 1972, to his most recent work, Rembrandt’s Kunstkammer of 2007.

The Painter as Printmaker: Impressionist Prints from the National Gallery of Canada

September 10 to December 6, 2009
Free Free Admission
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion
Level 3

This compelling show of seventy superb works on paper explores the range of printmaking techniques employed by the most celebrated French artists in the period spanning Realism and Post-Impressionism, from the mid-1850s through the 1890s. Among the artists included are Bracquemond, Cassatt, Cézanne, Corot, Daubigny, Degas, Forain, Luce, Manet, Millet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Signac and Van Gogh.

Pre-Columbian art

Free Free Admission
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion
Level 1

The collection of pre-Columbian art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, one of the largest in Canada, has grown again, with important donations that are now on display in the new galleries devoted to the art of ancient America. Some 100 objects, including thirty-two recent donations and nineteen loans, have been selected for this presentation of rare works. It presents a chronological and cultural approach to each major cultural area in Ancient America: Mesoamerica, the Intermediate Area (Central America) and the Andes in South America. “With the arrival of a new curator, Victor Pimentel, the Museum has reinstated its policy of research and enrichment for the collection of pre-Columbian art, as part of the dynamic of revitalizing the Museum on the eve of its 150th anniversary,” said Nathalie Bondil, the Museum’s director. As is the case with the entire Museum collection, admission to the galleries of pre-Columbian art is free at all times.

Sacred Africa II

Works from the Collections of Cirque du Soleil, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Redpath Museum, McGill University

Free Free Admission
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion
Level 1

Since November 19, 2008, Sacred Africa II will present a new selection of major works primarily from Laliberté’s collection, illustrating the artistic approaches of other peoples of West Africa and Equatorial and Central Africa. Sacred Africa II: Works from the Collections of Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Redpath Museum, McGill University brings together forty-eight works, sculptures, masks and objects, in the new, more spacious galleries that will now be devoted to African art.

The Body in Glass

Gift of the Anna and Joe Mendel Collection to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Free Free Admission
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion
Level 1

An exceptional gift of one hundred glass sculptures recently enriched the Museum’s Department of Decorative Arts, thanks to the generosity of Anna and Joe Mendel, long-standing friends of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Drawn to glass by its intrinsic properties and expressive potential, these collectors wished to share their enthusiasm for the Studio Glass Movement with Museum visitors. The Mendel Collection is the only one of its kind in Canada, ranking with those of the leading American connoisseurs who have made glass their passion. A first selection of nineteen artworks from the Mendel Collection, The Body in Glass, will be presented in a new gallery within the Museum’s permanent collection.

Napoleon

GIFT OF THE BEN WEIDER COLLECTION
TO THE MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Free Free Admission
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion
Level 3

Today, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is inaugurating new permanent galleries devoted to Napoleon and the arts under the First Empire, thanks to a major gift – the collection of works assembled by the late Ben Weider, for whom “Napoleon was a giant of history, one of the most influential figures of the nineteenth century, who helped to define the modern age.” According to Nathalie Bondil, the Museum’s Director, “This outstanding gift and Mr. Weider’s philanthropic desire to raise the profile of Napoleon have enabled us to acquire a group of works on long-term loan and have sparked offers of further gifts, so that the Museum can, at last, open an Empire gallery. Not only Montreal’s heritage but also that of Canada will be enriched, for this magnificent period in the arts was hitherto poorly represented for obvious historical reasons. We will always be extremely grateful to Mr. Weider.”