Welcoming the Newcomers 2019

"Welcoming the Newcomers" (2019) by Kent Monkman is a large-scale oil painting that reimagines the arrival of Europeans in North America. The work challenges traditional narratives of colonization by portraying Indigenous people as welcoming and powerful, while Europeans appear vulnerable and in need of assistance. The composition, featuring figures in various states of undress and an expansive seascape, references historical European paintings of the subject, but with Monkman's own subversive twist.