Biography

A native of Montreal, who grew up in the United States and Switzerland, Mr. Aquin holds a master’s degree in Art History from the Université de Montréal. After an initial stay at the MMFA, from 1990 to 1992, during which he collaborated on the opening of the Jean-Noël-Desmarais Pavilion, he distinguished himself for several years as an art critic. He rejoined the MMFA team in 1998 as Curator of Contemporary Art, a position he held until his departure for Washington in February 2015. During his second stay at the MMFA, Mr. Aquin organized more than 40 exhibitions of Canadian and international artists, and greatly contributed to the institution’s image of excellence. Building on this experience and that acquired in his role as Chief Curator of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, one of the great national museums of modern and contemporary art, along with the Tate in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Stedelijk in Amsterdam, Stéphane Aquin becomes Director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in November 2020.