Doha, Qatar
Museum of modern and contemporary art at Doha
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, in Qatar Foundation's Education City west of Doha, holds the world's largest collection of modern and contemporary Arab art, more than nine thousand works. It opened in December 2010 in a former school building converted by the French architect Jean-François Bodin into 5,500 square metres of galleries. The collection began as the personal project of Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani, who from the early 1990s gathered work by artists from across the Arab world over the previous two hundred years, aiming for a museum with an Arab perspective on modern art. Kept for years in two private villas in Madinat Khalifa, it was donated to Qatar Foundation and became a public institution within Qatar Museums. The displays cover the main movements in Arab art from the 1940s to today, painting, sculpture, photography and installation, by artists from the Maghreb to the Gulf, Iraq, the Levant and Egypt. Mathaf also stages major temporary exhibitions of Arab and international artists, with a library and education spaces.
Allow one and a half to two hours, and check the temporary exhibitions before you go. It is some way from the centre in Education City, so pair it with the nearby Qatar National Library. A free shuttle sometimes runs between the Museum of Islamic Art and Mathaf on set days. Qatar Museums policy gives residents of Qatar free entry.
Hours and prices change — check before you go. Source: en.wikipedia.org
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MosqueDoha, Qatar
