Vancouver's art world is buzzing with news that acclaimed photographer Jeff Wall's work won't be shown at the opening of the Audain Art Museum in Whistler.

Instead, Canada's newest Class A art museum will feature paintings by Mexican masters Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco.

The three modernists are known as Los Trés Grandes.

Rivera, a 20th-century painter and muralist, was married to fellow artist Frida Kahlo.

His Man at the Crossroads fresco of Russian Communist Vladimir Lenin gained worldwide fame after it was destroyed by the Rockefeller family in 1934. It was prepared for the Rockefeller Center in New York City,

The 56,000-square-foot Audain Art Museum opens in late January. The first exhibition will also include a sculpture by Oaxaca artist Rufino Tamayo.

According to a news release issued by the museum, many of Wall's works "turned out to be unavailable".

As a result, chief curator Darrin Martens recommended showing the Mexican artists' paintings.

They're owned by Polygon Homes Ltd. chairman Michael Audain and his wife, Yoshiko Karasawa, who created the museum. Their impressive Northwest Coast art exhibition will be on permanent display in the building, which was designed by Patkau Architects.

Wall, who's from Vancouver, is travelling and has so far been unavailable for comment.

This morning, he's featured in the Guardian concerning a new exhibition of his work at London's Marion Goodman Gallery.