New Arab Museum to Open in Doha

posted on: Sep 30, 2010

Qatar will open a new museum on Dec. 30 devoted to modern Arab art in its capital, Doha. Called Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, it will house a collection of more than 6,000 works, spanning the 1840s to the present and representing major artistic trends. Its opening exhibition, “Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art,” will feature work by more than 100 artists.

For now, Mathaf (which means “museum” in Arabic) will be located in a former school building, redesigned for the museum by the French architect Jean-François Bodin. Plans for a permanent home will be announced later. The museum is being established by the Qatar Museums Authority, a government department, and the Qatar Foundation , a government-sponsored entity. In 2008, the authority, run by the daughter of Qatar’s emir, opened the Museum of Islamic Art in a building designed by I.M. Pei.

Kate Taylor
The New York Times