- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

“What is the function of art and what is the purpose of art? Is it only to show beauty or pleasure? - I don't believe so. I believe that art has to be challenging, and it has to take us sometimes to challenging places. I felt at this moment in time, it was important to have a critical perspective on Canada.”

This was Cree artist Kent Monkman speaking about his show Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience. This body of work, commissioned by The Art Museum at the University of Toronto, includes his own works “set in dialogue with historical artefacts and art works borrowed from museums and private collections from across the country.” It was a response to Canada 150 sesquicentennial celebrations.

When Grey County artist David Robinson saw the exhibition at the McCord Museum in Montreal, he was very excited to see that it was coming to the Tom Thomson Art Gallery this summer as part of its four year tour across Canada. Robinson contacted the TOM and spoke to Acting Director David Huff.

Robinson said he told Huff, “that I had never, ever in my life been so moved and impacted by works of art. I almost refrain from calling Kent Monkman's paintings, prints and sculpture installations as merely works of art. They form a sort of fast track resetting of a normal typical Canadian's perspective on the history of this land and its people.”

Huff confirmed that the booking had been cancelled and Monkman's work would not be coming to Owen Sound. He cited the sheer size of the Shame and Prejudice show, and how the Tom Thomson gallery could not possibly contain all of the large paintings and installation pieces. Robinson agreed the whole exhibition would not fit, but asked about a limited, curated selection of the paintings and installations. The Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen's at Queen's University solved their space restrictions by exhibiting only selected works from Shame and Prejudice last winter.

Huff said it was going instead to Museum London, Ontario, for the main part of the Summer.

Robinson wrote to us at the Owen Sound Hub about the exhibit:  “I urge all who are reading this to make a point of visiting, taking some hours, and thoroughly steeping themselves in all of the imagery, the words on the chapter heading posters, the extra historical pieces which comprise part of the show, and reset.”

Robinson encouraged the Tom Thomson Art Gallery to organize a bus trip to London to see the exhibit at Museum London. We at the Owen Sound Hub promised him that if the Gallery could not, we would organize such a trip for Owen Sounders to Monkman's challenging places, to give Owen Sounders  the opportunity to bring that challenge home.

David Robinson's article about Shame and Prejudice is here.

All images reproduced with the generous permission of the artist