Jacques Des Rochers

Curator of Quebec and Canadian Art (before 1945)

Since 2002, Jacques Des Rochers has been the Curator of Quebec and Canadian Art (before 1945) at the MMFA. He is also responsible for the Museum’s collections of Inuit and First Nations art. To mark the 150th anniversary of the Museum’s founding, he developed an exhibition concept for these bodies of work and oversaw their relocation to the new Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art, inaugurated in 2011. He edited the first major publication devoted to the whole of these collections: Quebec and Canadian Art: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Collection (2011). He co-curated the exhibition 1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group and was one of the editors of the eponymous catalogue (2015). His other achievements as a curator include Realms of Shadow and Light: Quebec and Canadian Drawings from the Museum’s Collection (2013-2014) and The Artistic Legacy of the Montreal Sulpicians (he worked as an editor on the accompanying catalogue, The Sulpicians of Montreal, Fides 2007; Wilson & Lafleur 2013). Earlier, he had coordinated and co-curated A Dealer for “Living Art”: Selected Works from the Montreal Donation of Max and Iris Stern (2004) and Fritz Brandtner: A Gift (2003), in addition to co-editing the companion catalogues. In 2007, he curated the permanent exhibition devoted to the work of Marc-Aurèle Fortin, after the acquisition of the collection from the museum of the same name. The year before, he had curated the permanent exhibition of Inuit Art, Takuminartut. In mounting these exhibitions, some of which garnered prizes, Des Rochers collaborated with various well-known designers and architects. Most of these shows travelled to other Canadian museums.