Monkman’s art aims to help us recognize the connectedness of all living beings in space and time. He invokes the compositional conventions of historical military paintings to instead authorize and validate acts of Indigenous resistance. The works here highlight recent acts, such as those of Water Protectors on the Standing Rock Reservation (2016–17) in North Dakota, who aimed to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. They also shine a light on Indigenous protections of forests and wetlands across the continent and the medicines and teachings they contain.
History is an incomplete story without an end. The actions of those today are the grand narratives of the future. Despite extreme adversity, Indigenous peoples continue to demonstrate leadership in defending lands, waters, and skies, recognizing a spectrum of gender, sexuality, and kinship structures, preserving linguistic and biological diversity, and working to recognize and heal the generational impacts of colonial policies that continue to harm.
Victory for the Water Protectors
2018
Acrylic paint on canvas
Tia Collection, Santa Fe, NM
Reproduction © and courtesy Kent Monkman
Evoking the extreme use of force by militarized police against Water Protectors peacefully resisting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Standing Rock Reservation, Monkman’s Protectors series draws on the visual language of French Romanticism, Spanish history paintings, and military paintings to clearly mark the aggressors. Unlike his earlier work that relied on sweeping landscapes of lush greenery, here the background is obscured by billowing smoke that leaves only the foreground and the brutality of the scene, repeated many times over across Indigenous territories of North America.
Washing Mary’s Tears
2018
Acrylic paint on canvas
Loan by Alex Josephson and PARTISANS art collection
Reproduction © and courtesy Kent Monkman
In this more intimate painting, Monkman focuses on more than the pervasive violence against Indigenous women. He depicts women on the front lines—as leaders, culture keepers, and matriarchs. These women speak for themselves, their territories, and all their relations.
As an effort to elevate Indigenous leadership as a response to colonial monuments, Monkman’s portraits series, wâsê-acâhkosak (Shining Stars), honors Indigenous culture bearers, Land and Water Protectors, and advocates who work in cultural and political spheres. The tender, intimate, and respectful depictions of these figures speak to the relationships Monkman has forged but also highlights their humility and perseverance.
Nick Estes
2020
Acrylic paint on canvas
Collection of Glenbow, Calgary, Alberta
Reproduction © and courtesy Kent Monkman
Nick Estes (Khulwíčhaša Oyáte) is Assistant Professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. He studies and writes about decolonization, oral history, US imperialism, environmental justice, anti-capitalism, and the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ nations.
Pauline Shirt (Nimikiiquay)
2021
Acrylic on canvas
Kent Monkman Studio
Reproduction © and courtesy Kent Monkman
A beloved elder, knowledge keeper, activist, and educator, Pauline Shirt (Saddle Lake Cree First Nation, 1943–2024) cofounded Canada’s first school lead by Indigenous people, now known as Kâpapâmahchakwêw (Wandering Spirit School). She served as a cultural advisor to many organizations that focused on issues ranging from mental health to the performing and visual arts.
Violet Chum
2023
Acrylic paint on canvas
Kent Monkman Studio
Reproduction © and courtesy Kent Monkman
Artist Violet Chum (môsoniyi ililiwak [Moose Cree First Nation]) holds a fabric banner screen-printed with the phrase “Water is Sacred, No Pipelines,” designed by Isaac Murdoch and Christi Belcourt. Chum was a model in Monkman’s Protectors series. Look for her in Victory for the Water Protectors and Washing Mary’s Tears in this section.
Tasha Beeds
2020
Acrylic paint on canvas
On Loan from D and C Angelo
Reproduction © and courtesy Kent Monkman
Tasha Beeds (Cree, Scottish-Métis, and Bajan) is a scholar and protector of her community, the lands, and the water. She is a mother, grandmother, artist, poet, academic, mentor to many, and Water Walker (a ceremonial role). Monkman recognizes her work to promote sovereignty and preserve cultural legacies as invaluable to Indigenous people.
The Great Mystery
2022
Acrylic paint on canvas
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: College, Hanover, New Hampshire; Purchased through the Miriam H. and S. Sidney Stoneman Acquisition Fund, 2023.18.1
Reproduction © and courtesy Kent Monkman
With a shrug of her shoulders and a wry smile, Miss Chief shows humor is the best medicine for healing. After exploring the collection of the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College, Monkman found inspiration from an unlikely pair: Lilac and Orange Over Ivory by Mark Rothko and Cyrus Dallin’s bronze sculpture Appeal to the Great Spirit. Monkman replaced the pensive warrior stereotype with a sardonic Miss Chief and turned Rothko’s abstraction into her landscape setting. Extending the spiritual contemplation of great mysteries that both of these works engage, Monkman attempts to distill the linearity and tropes of Indigenous-settler histories and asks how art might perpetuate and subvert them.
Do all that you can to care for one another. There is much work to be done, but âhkamêyimo, don’t give up. Each of you can do something.
Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors is organized by the Denver Art Museum and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It was developed with generous support from the D. R. Sobey Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art, and Henry Luce Foundation, with additional support provided by the Birnbaum Social Discourse Project, The Christensen Fund, Walker Youngbird Foundation, Marilyn Carol and Robert Weaver, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS Colorado.
