Quebec City arts complex to launch new pavilion June 24 with five exhibitions

Musee national des beaux-arts du Quebec in National Battlefields Park.
(Photo courtesy of the Musee national des beaux-arts du Quebec)

QUEBEC—The Pierre Lassonde pavilion, the latest addition to Quebec City’s museum devoted to Quebec art, will open June 24 with five exhibitions showcasing works ranging from Inuit sculptures to a monumental Riopelle fresco, museum officials say.

The glass-and-steel pavilion will serve as the gateway to the Musee national des beaux-arts du Quebec, located in National Battlefields Park overlooking the St. Lawrence River.

In addition to a ticket counter, boutique, cafe and auditorium, the new building—the fourth in the museum complex—will include a dozen galleries for temporary and permanent exhibitions.

Designed by the leading Dutch firm OMA and Montreal architects at Provencher Roy, the pavilion is being described by the museum as an architectural masterpiece, with a great-hall entrance more than 12 metres high and a suspended glass staircase over the park.

Admission from June 24 to 26 will be free.

The five exhibitions will feature works from the museum’s collections. Here’s a run-down:

“From Ferron to BGL: Contemporary Art in Quebec”: Works created since 1960 highlighting upheavals in Quebec art since the province’s Quiet Revolution.

“Illipounga: The Brousseau Inuit Art Collection”: More than 100 works by over 60 artists from Nunavik, Que.

, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

“Jean-Paul Riopelle: Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg”: Riopelle’s celebrated 40-metre-long fresco displayed in full length—for the first time—in the tunnel linking the new building to the museum’s central pavilion.

“Decorative Arts and Design in Quebec”: Glasswork, ceramics, furniture, posters and other pieces made by 50 artists over the past six decades.

“Installations: On a Large Scale”: Some 30 installations designed to create a promenade between the Pierre Lassonde building and the Gerard-Morisset pavilion.

Funding for the museum’s expansion has included $45.1 million from the Quebec government, $33.7 million from Ottawa and $10 million from businessman and philanthropist Pierre Lassonde.