Banners of solidarity

For over 50 years, Anishnabe Saulteaux contemporary artist Robert Houle has been trailblazing. Since the Canadian Museum of History’s 1970 acquisition of his painting Red Is Beautiful, Houle’s influential work as an artist, curator, writer and educator has profoundly impacted the world of contemporary First Nations art in Canada – and globally. 

On view now, the AGO exhibition Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful surveys five decades of the artist’s monumental career and includes more than 90 large installations, paintings and drawings. Friday, December 3, 2021 – live from the AGO’s Baillie Court (and online) – was the kickoff of aabaakwad 2021, the third annual international gathering of Indigenous artists, curators and thinkers. This year, aabaakwad welcomed Robert Houle to deliver an opening keynote address, followed by a panel discussion with artists Faye HeavyShield and Barry Ace. 

Mohawk Summer (1990) is a large-scale work by Robert Houle consisting of four vibrantly coloured cloth banners, each showcasing a word directly related to a historic standoff between the Mohawk nation of Kanehsatà:ke and the Quebec provincial police in 1990. As part of Red is Beautiful, a re-creation of Mohawk Summer – done by Houle in 2010 – will be hung in Maxine Granovsky & Ira Gluskin Hall at the AGO. These grand and majestic banners will greet visitors when they first enter the Gallery, prepping them for the landmark exhibition.      

In the summer of 1990, developers in the town of Oka Quebec sought to expand a golf course on land that contained a sacred Anishnabe burial ground. For 78 days the Mohawk nation of Kanehsatà:ke warded off an attack by the Quebec provincial police and the Canadian army, in defence of the burial ground. The dispute made national headlines and was considered by many – including Houle – to be a violent and oppressive human rights violation perpetrated by the Quebec government. During the attack, armed police and soldiers surrounded a longhouse on the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. Houle was moved by this event in particular, having taught art in the same longhouse during his time as an educator in the early 1970s. He responded by creating Mohawk Summer. 

In an act of solidarity, Houle covered the four large windows of his then Toronto studio with cloth banners, blocking the sunlight for multiple months. As he explains, “The banners were created in the national colour of blue followed by the colours of the quahog shell—violet, red, and light crimson—and covered the windows of my Queen West studio for the entire summer; a rainbow of colour denied light is darkness, mourning.” Each piece of cloth is marked with one word of text, symbolizing crucial aspects of the 1990 attack. From left to right the banners read: Sovereign, Longhouse, Landclaim, and Falseface. Mohawk Summer is a powerful statement that signified Houle’s state of mourning while creating a public-facing message of solidarity.    

Don’t miss Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful, on view now until April 2022 at the AGO. Stay tuned for more Insider stories exploring the artworks in this exhibition and Robert Houle’s practice at large.