Kent Monkman's exhibition "History is Painted by the Victors" is on view at the Denver Art Museum (DAM) through August 17, before traveling to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on September 27. The show centers on Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, a fictional narrator who appears throughout Monkman's work to disrupt false narratives about Indigenous history and colonization. The article excerpts a catalog essay explaining how Monkman created Miss Chief as a campy, humorous, and empowering figure who infuses Indigenous perspectives into art history, often inserting her into iconic artworks to subvert colonial tropes.
This matters because Monkman is one of the most prominent contemporary Indigenous artists in North America, and Miss Chief has become a powerful symbol of Indigenous resilience, gender fluidity, and cultural reclamation. By reimagining canonical works by artists like Mark Rothko and George Catlin, Monkman challenges the art historical canon and asks viewers to reconsider who gets to tell history. The exhibition's inclusion in two major museums—the DAM and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts—signals growing institutional recognition of Indigenous perspectives in contemporary art.