Image: Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec has announced the opening celebrations for 'Espace Riopelle – Pavillon Michael Audain', a new space dedicated to the work of Jean Paul Riopelle. The museum says the public opening will begin on 22 October and run through 25 October 2026, with performances, meetings and guided visits planned as part of a festive launch. The site is presented as a place for contemplation, encounter and discovery centered on the artist’s oeuvre.
According to the museum, the new pavilion was designed by the Quebec firm Les Architectes FABG, selected through an architecture competition. The building is described as offering wide views over the St. Lawrence River and the Plains of Abraham, with a luminous interior, broad glazing and terraces intended to bring art and landscape into direct conversation. The museum frames the project as a new chapter in its own history and as a major legacy of the centenary celebrations for Riopelle.
Jean Paul Riopelle, who was born in Montreal in 1923 and died in 2002, is identified by the museum as one of the most important Canadian artists of the 20th century. The museum notes that it acquired one of his works in 1956, becoming the first museum to do so, and says it now holds the largest public collection of Riopelle’s work. The new pavilion is intended to give that collection a dedicated setting and to expand the ways visitors encounter the artist’s practice.
The museum says the pavilion will present four exhibitions and experiences guided by the senses and emotions. Among them is a large retrospective showing the breadth of Riopelle’s practice, while a circular room will be devoted to 'L’Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg', one of the artist’s major works. The museum also plans a renewed presentation of its national collection of modern art, drawing parallels between Riopelle’s work and that of other Automatist artists.
In its project description, the museum emphasizes the pavilion’s human scale and its aim to support intimate viewing. The building is also described as housing a café, a boutique, a school-group cloakroom, a multifunction room and other visitor services. The museum says the architecture evokes the artist’s studio through spruce-wood ceilings, while the exterior landscape design is inspired by boreal forest and integrates artworks.
The opening is also being framed as a special event for museum members. The museum says members of the Beaux-Arts program will have advance access to the celebrations, with a pre-sale already announced on the pavilion page. Ticketing information on the museum website lists the special opening event at 'Espace Riopelle – Pavillon Michael Audain' from 22 to 25 October 2026, with places limited and member pricing available.
The museum says the new pavilion will also include a dedicated space on its top floor for an aromatic experience linked to 'L’Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg', developed with sommelier François Chartier, Chartier World LAB and museum teams. Alongside the four exhibitions, the launch will mark the public debut of a project the museum says is budgeted at $84 million and scheduled to open in October 2026.
