KENT MONKMAN
Study for Grandmother Knew All the Medicines
Date: 2022
Dimensions: 27” x 36”
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Condition: Overall very good
Provenance:
– Artist
– Trotta-Bono Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
Exhibited:
– Kent Monkman: Being Legendary. October 8, 2022-April 16, 2023, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Illustrated:
– Monkman, Kent, et al. Kent Monkman: Being Legendary: At Royal Ontario Museum: Confronting Colonialism, Rethinking History. Art Canada Institute, 2022.
Drawing on the verdant, dreamlike language of Rousseau’s jungle scenes, Monkman situates Miss Chief Eagle Testickle—his gender-fluid, time-traveling alter ego—within a space shaped by Indigenous knowledge and kinship. Anchored by the grandmother’s medicinal understanding of the land and the presence of a child who carries that knowledge forward, the work emphasizes intergenerational continuity, resilience, and self-determined identity.
