Quebec City is getting a landmark new home for the work of its most famous modern painter. On 22 October, the Musee National des Beaux-Arts du Quebec (MNBAQ) will open the Espace Riopelle-Michael Audain Pavilion, a three-storey, 5,000-square-metre building devoted entirely to Jean Paul Riopelle, who died in 2002. Conceived by the Montreal firm FABG Architectes, the design evokes the artist's rustic home studio and opens onto views of the Plains of Abraham and the Saint Lawrence River, with two covered outdoor terraces and landscaping planted with species from the boreal forest of Riopelle's native northern Quebec.

The price tag tells a story of its own. First announced in 2022, the project cost C$84m (about $61m) after its budget more than doubled, with the Quebec government contributing over C$40m. The Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation put in at least C$20m, while Michael Audain - a philanthropist, co-founder of the foundation and collector of Riopelle's work since the 1990s - joined his wife Yoshiko Karasawa and mining magnate Pierre Lassonde in donating more than 60 major works by Riopelle and his contemporaries. Counting the gifted art, Audain's total contribution exceeds C$90m, making the pavilion one of the largest cultural gifts in Quebec's history.

The building holds four exhibition spaces, including a survey that traces Riopelle's career from his early Automatiste period through the 1950s "mosaic" abstractions and landscape-inspired prints. A circular gallery was purpose-built for the artist's 40-metre triptych L'Hommage a Rosa Luxemburg (1992), which anchors the new wing. Audain, who has called Riopelle arguably Canada's most internationally recognized artist, praised his innovations with the palette knife, while MNBAQ director Jean-Luc Murray described the pavilion as a nuanced interplay of nature, architecture and large-scale art that will make the artist's work far more accessible to the public.