Photo de couverture : From left to right: Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), Time Machine Series, 1961, oil on canvas, 203.2 x 269.9 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, gift from the McLean Foundation, 1966, 65/25. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo AGO, Craig Boyko | Émilie Charmy (1878-1974), Portrait of Berthe Weill (detail), 1910-1914, oil on canvas, 90 x 61 cm. MMFA, purchase, Horsley and Annie Townsend Bequest. © Émilie Charmy, ADAGP, Paris / CARCC Ottawa 2024. Photo MMFA, Julie Ciot | Kent Monkman (1965-), History Is Painted by the Victors (detail), 2013. Denver Art Museum, gift from Vicki and Kent Logan to the Collection of the Denver Art Museum. © Kent Monkman
Major names in Canadian art and international art history are coming to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) in 2025. Large-scale exhibitions will showcase the radical art-making of Joyce Wieland, the Surrealist work of Montreal-born Alan Glass, and the iconic paintings of Cree artist Kent Monkman. The Museum will also shine a light on the influence of Berthe Weill, a little-known gallerist who propelled the careers of many major figures in Paris’s avant-garde, including Chagall, Matisse, Modigliani and Picasso. Last but not least, the MMFA will unveil its reinstallation of the impressive decorative arts and design collection in a completely new presentation covering two levels of the Liliane and David M. Steward Pavilion.
This winter, while Two by Two, Together: Recent Additions to the MMFA’s Collection and Anri Sala’s Ravel Ravel Interval continue, the MMFA will pay tribute to one of the most influential Canadian artists and filmmakers of the 20th century.
WORLD PREMIERE
February 8 – May 4, 2025
JOYCE WIELAND: HEART ON
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion – Level 2
The world premiere of the retrospective Joyce Wieland: Heart On will celebrate the playful, subversive and politically engaged work of Joyce Wieland (1930-1998). Through over 100 works, it will delve into her multifaceted practice – covering drawing, painting, experimental film, textile and plastic assemblages – that spanned some 40 years.
March 26 – August 10, 2025
BAD GIRLS ONLY
WOMEN AND THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Graphic Arts Centre
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion – Level S2
In spring, Bad Girls Only: Women and the Seven Deadly Sins will showcase about twenty rare Dutch and Flemish prints and drawings from the Museum’s collection. Dating from the 15th to 17th centuries, works on paper by Albrecht Dürer, Hendrick Goltzius, Jacob Matham and Hieronymus Wierix invite visitors to explore treasures from the Museum’s collection and to question historical associations between women and sin and their impact in the present.
April 16 – September 28, 2025
WORLDS OF WONDER
THE SURREALIST JOURNEY OF ALAN GLASS
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion – Level 3
Montrealer by birth and Mexican by adoption, Alan Glass (1932-2023), was an important, if underrecognized, artist associated with the Surrealist movement. In what will be the first solo exhibition of his work in a Canadian museum, Worlds of Wonder: The Surrealist Journey of Alan Glass will immerse visitors in his fascinating artistic universe through diverse modes of expression, ranging from drawing to assemblage.
CANADIAN EXCLUSIVE
May 10 – September 7, 2025
BERTHE WEILL
ART DEALER OF THE PARISIAN AVANT-GARDE
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion – Level 3
In the summer, a large-scale exhibition will be the first to give twentieth century Parisian art dealer Berthe Weill (1865-1951) the recognition she rightly deserves. This gallerist of undeniable flair was a key player in the rise of young talent like Marc Chagall, Émilie Charmy, André Derain, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, Suzanne Valadon, and many others. Featuring exceptional loans from Europe and North America, Berthe Weill, Art Dealer of the Parisian Avantgarde provides a unique opportunity for visitors to discover how this extraordinary woman shaped the history of Modern art.
June 13, 2025 – January 4, 2026
MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS
STREAMING LIGHT
Contemporary Art Square
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion – Level S2
Also in summer, the Contemporary Art Square will be aglow with Streaming Light, the first solo exhibition in a Quebec museum for Montreal artist Marie-Claire Blais. New paintings and Blais’s most ambitious installation to date will immerse visitors in the artist’s recent explorations of light and colour.
Opening September 5, 2025
NEW PRESENTATION
OF THE DECORATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN COLLECTION
Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion
In fall, the Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion will reopen its doors to reveal the new presentation of the MMFA’s decorative arts and design collection, considered to be among the most important in North America. The Montreal public again have access to their beloved Sun, the majestic glass work by Dale Chihuly, which underwent significant conservation work and will be on permanent display in the renovated pavilion.
CANADIAN PREMIERE
September 27, 2025 – March 8, 2026
KENT MONKMAN
HISTORY IS PAINTED BY THE VICTORS
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion – Level 2
The Museum will also present the Canadian premiere of Kent Monkman: History Is Painted by the Victors. This large-scale exhibition will bring together iconic and monumental works by the worldrenowned Canadian artist and member of ocêkwi sîpiy (Fisher River Cree Nation). Boldly and with humour, these works revisit the conventions of history painting to upend colonial narratives.
“Combining major international partnerships and exhibitions that offer new ways of engaging with the Museum’s collection, the MMFA program for 2025 aims to inspire curiosity, wonder, and reflection. We are excited to be shedding new light on historically overlooked figures, ranging from the Montreal-born Surrealist Alan Glass to the Parisian art dealer Berthe Weill, who was the first woman to show many artists now recognized as pioneering figures of Modern art. Taking us on a journey from the Renaissance to the present day, this program also invites us to question the codes and conventions that shape the way we see and experience the world around us,” says Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator at the MMFA.
