Aboriginal

Placing Aboriginal Art at the National Gallery of Canada

Anne Whitelaw (University of Alberta)

Abstract: In 2003, the National Gallery of Canada opened its new galleries of Canadian and Aboriginal art. Through an analysis of the narrative of the display, this article explores the implications of the introduction of historical Aboriginal objects into the exhibition of Canadian art both for the evaluation of Aboriginal cultural production as art and for the construction of the discourse of Canadian art history. Although there are moments of rupture in the galleries' narrative, the introduction of Aboriginal objects does little to question the aesthetic assumption of the art museum, which frames all works within its walls in terms of Western conceptions of artistic value.

Résumé : En 2003, le Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada a ouvert ses nouvelles salles d'exposition d'art canadien et autochtone. À partir d'une analyse de la trame narrative dans le processus d'exposition, cet essai explore les conséquences que peuvent avoir l'introduction d'objets historiques autochtones dans le contexte d'art canadien. Ceci, afin d'évaluer la production autochtone en tant qu'oeuvre d'art et afin de développer un discours canadien en ce qui a trait à l'histoire de l'art. Quoiqu'il y ait des instances de rupture dans ce récit, l'insertion d'objets autochtones remet peu en question l'hypothèse esthétique du musée qui situe toutes les oeuvres qui s'y retrouvent dans un contexte de valeur artistique occidental.

In June 2003, the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) re-opened its Historical Canadian Galleries with a new display that included, for the first time in the institution's 125-year history, the exhibition of Aboriginal objects. For at least the past 50 years, the National Gallery's display of Canadian art has mapped out a conventional narrative of the development of art in Canada from colonization to the present. Aboriginal art was noticeably absent from the National Gallery's...