This exhibition showcases and celebrates major recent donations to the National Gallery of Canada by Winnipeg collector and philanthropist Michael Nesbitt. Combining paintings, sculptures, and mixed media works alongside icons from the Gallery’s permanent collection, including Agnes Martin’s White Flower I (1985), the show explores “echoes” - art historical, sociocultural, political - between two collections that are now one, thanks to a patron’s collecting vision.
A passionate art collector, Nesbitt has long been drawn to exploring key turning points in modern and contemporary art history. His contributions to the NGC began with a landmark donation: Frank Bowling’s monumental painting Middle Passage (1970). Today, the work hangs prominently in the Dr. Shirley L. Thomson Gallery, where it resonates alongside Barnett Newman’s Voice of Fire (1967) and Mark Rothko’s No. 16 (1957).