Arab Museum of Modern Art

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The Arab Museum of Modern Art ( Mathaf ; Arabic المتحف العربي للفن الحديث, DMG al-matḥaf al-ʿarabī li-l-fann al-ḥadīṯ , English Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art ) is the second art museum in the emirate of Qatar and the first museum for modern art in the Arabian Peninsula . It opened on December 30, 2010 in ar-Rayyan near Doha .

investment

The museum was initially planned in 2008 as a large, expensive new building by the architect Rafael Viñoly in the futuristic shape of a sand dune, but will be housed in the current, temporary building until it is not foreseeable. It is located in the city of ar-Rayyan in the Education City district , which is on the outskirts of Doha , the capital of Qatar. It is located about twelve kilometers west of the old city of Doha. The building, designed by the French architect Jean-François Bodin, integrates an existing, vacant school building and was erected within less than a year for around eight million euros.

The Arabic word "Mathaf" means museum. The museum, commissioned by Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al-Thani , Vice-Chairman of the Qatar Museum Authority (QMA), has an exhibition area of ​​around 5,500 square meters, spread over two floors. With a collection of 6,300 works and plans for a research center, the museum is the first of its kind in the region and is intended to serve as a magnet for modern art throughout the Arab world, as the daughter of the emir, who ruled until 2013 and chairwoman of the QMA, al -Mayassa al-Thani , says: "we are making Qatar the place to see, explore and discuss the creations of Arab artists of the modern era and of our own time".

The building complex includes a research library, a café, a museum shop as well as the functional and exhibition rooms. The visitor enters the museum cube via the roofed outdoor terrace of the café and in the evening hours comes across projections of videos and film productions in the corridor connecting to the main building. The sober and informal building interior seeks the balance between old and new, according to the art collection on display.

The museum is intended to promote global dialogue, research and science, engage the interested public and thus become part of the cultural landscape of the Gulf region and the Arab diaspora.

collection

Prehistory and opening

The starting point of the collection is the private collection Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al Thani , who bought his first painting in 1986 and who had collected 6,000 works of art by the time the museum opened, the largest collection of modern art in Arabia. With the opening of the collection to the public, he linked the hope: “We want this museum to become the home of Arab modern art in the Middle East”. Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (Advisory Board member of the museum) and the artist Jeff Koons were present at the opening . Yan Pei-Ming contributed a picture of the emir couple at the time. The Iraqi video artist Wafaa Bilal was also involved in the opening with a video installation that shows snapshots of a camera mounted on the back of his head in fast motion.

Exhibitions

The curators of the museum, Nada Shabout, Wassan Al-Khudhairi and Deena Chalabi, had the task of showing new perspectives in Arab modernism and designed three exhibitions under this motto for the opening. The most important of these was "Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art", which showed works by over a hundred artists from Sheikh Hassan's collection. Were represented Dia Azzawi from Iraq , Saloua Raouda Choucair from Lebanon , Fuad Al-Futaih from Yemen , Princess Wijdan Ali of Jordan and Hassan Sharif from the United Arab Emirates . It was possible to make a part of Arab culture largely neglected at home and abroad, painting, aware and known in the international art world.

Other exhibitions were:

Organizational matters

As chairman of the QMA, the top management has Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani , the daughter of the Emir of Qatar, who ruled until 2013 and was included in Forbes' list of the 100 most influential women in the world in 2012. She was responsible for setting up the museum and opening it. Wassan Al-Khudhairi was the museum's chief curator and director (until July 2012). Abdellah Karroum has been director since June 2013 . The Mathaf is managed as part of Education City by the operating company Qatar Foundation and Education City .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Museum of Modern Arab Art by Rafael Viñoly Architects. In: dezeen magazine , August 22, 2008.
  2. ↑ a b c Art in Qatar. A Smithsonian in the Sand. In: The Economist , December 29, 2010.
  3. ↑ The main thing is that it comes from Arabia. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 11, 2011, p. 36.
  4. ^ Barbara Schumacher: Event Mathaf. In: German-Arab Society (online portal), accessed on January 5, 2011.
  5. ^ A b Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art: Architecture Information. In: World Architecture (e-architect online portal) , accessed on January 8, 2011.
  6. ↑ Erica Orden: His Hindsight Is 20-20. In: The Wall Street Journal , December 3, 2010.
  7. ↑ Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art. In: Mathaf.org.qa .
  8. ↑ Rocking the Casbah. Mathaf Aims to Shake Up the World of Arab Art. In: Time Magazine . Vol. 178, 2011, No. 7, pp. 43-45.
  9. ^ The Museum. In: Mathaf.org.qa .
  10. ^ Damaris Colhoun: Qatar Opens First Museum of Modern Arab Art, a Q&A With Chief Curator. In: Huffington Post , December 29, 2010.
  11. ^ Abdellah Karroum New Director of Mathaf. In: Nafas Art Magazine , June 2013; Corinne Martin: Interview: Doctor Abdellah Karroum Director of Mathaf. In: CorinneMartin.com , December 29, 2013.

Coordinates: 25 ° 18 ′ 38 "  N , 51 ° 25 ′ 11"  E