Arab Museum of Modern Art
The Arab Museum of Modern Art (English: Arab Museum of Modern Art ) see also → Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha is the second art museum in Qatar and the first museum of modern art in the Arabian Peninsula, it was on 30 opened in December 2010. Designed by the French architect Jean -Francois Bodin new integrated an existing, vacant school. The present museum also represents a temporary, because the originally called " Mathaf " planned futuristic building designed by architect Rafael Viñoly in the shape of a sand dune has not yet been realized.
Location
The museum is located in Doha, the capital of the Arab emirate of Qatar and was built in Education City district. It is situated about twelve kilometers west of the old city of Doha.
Description
The Arabic word " Mathaf " means museum. The Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali of Al- Thani, Vice - Chairperson of the Qatar Museum Authority ( QMA ) commissioned museum has an exhibition area of about 5,500 square meters, spread over two floors. The building complex includes a research library, a café, a museum shop as well as the function and exhibition spaces. The visitor enters the built in a cubist style museum on the covered outdoor terrace cafes. Then already follows a technical highlight of the museum: the required passageway can be used by hidden installed projectors for video and film productions in the evenings. Inside the building the Mathaf with modern and informal architecture acts, is sought the balance between old and new, in accordance with the already issued here art collection.
The collection and special exhibitions of Mathaf will be complemented by modern online programs, so the museum is another center for global dialogue, research and science. Through these activities and contacts with artists, writers, students and scholars to the interested public can get involved, the Mathaf is part of the cultural landscape of the Gulf region and the Arab Diaspora.
Collections
Opening Exhibitions
The curators of the museum had the task of identifying new prospects in Arab modernism, under this principle, three exhibitions were designed.
- " Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art " features works by over a hundred artists from the collection of Sheikh Hassan, represented also Dia Azzawi from Iraq, Saloua Raouda Choucair from Lebanon, Fuad Al Futaih from Yemen, Princess Wijdan Ali from Jordan and Hassan Sharif from the United Arab Emirates.
- There are two more exhibitions of works by contemporary artists, one of them still. in the rooms of the Museum of Islamic Art, which do not originate from the Sajjil collection
- In the opening ceremony and the exiled Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal video was involved with a video installation, it shows snapshots of a mounted on the back of his head in time-lapse camera.
They managed to turn a hitherto largely neglected at home and abroad part of Arab culture, the painting to make conscious and well known in the international art world.
Organizational
Acting Head of the museum is Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al- Thani. She is a daughter of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al- Thani and was included in the Forbes list of the 100 most influential women in the world in 2012. She was responsible for the establishment of the museum and the opening. The Mataf is managed as part of the Education City of the operating company, Qatar Foundation and Education City.