Musée des Beaux-Arts

In November of 2016, Montreal's splendid Musée des Beaux-Arts became the 12th largest museum in North America. A generous gift by locals Michal and Renata Hornstein added a handsome new building and 75 new masterworks to the collection, most notably medieval Dutch paintings. The museum is now more encyclopedic than ever, with western art of all eras represented, plus African art, ancient Egyptian statuary, Inuit sculptures, you name it, it's here. And since we should name names, know that Tintoretto, Breughel, Rembrandt, El Greco, Picasso, Rothko, Basquiat and other greats await those who visit.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of starting fresh with a new building is that the curators have been freed from the usual square- rooms-with-white-walls conventions. At the heart of every floor of the new pavilllion (which showcases western art from the 12th century through today) is an oval room, where art and artifacts are mixed in cunning ways. On the top floor, for example, are 15th Dutch still-lifes interspersed with the types of objects wealthy low-landers of that period would have displayed in their private house museums (a common practice). That might mean a half-foot tall statue from ancient egypt, a narwhal tusk or a case of ancient Roman coins. The juxtapositions are delightful. And that's just the beginning of the creativity on display here: in a room of highly romantic, 19th century paintings the curators have projected a forest onto the walls between the paintings, and piped in bird calls. Next door, in a gallery showing paintings of North Africa, the walls have been cut out to resemble the facade of a mosque.