This is a highly critical article by Mr Farouk Yousef in Lebanons Al Nahar newspaper. The author is very unhappy with Qatars Mathaf Museum and makes a number of accusations about the team and their work. Barjeel Art Foundation has proudly - and very modestly - contributed to this monumental effort by Nada Shabout and the excellent team of Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art who have spared no effort in documenting, archiving and cataloguing Arab art. The criticism that this gentleman makes is unwarranted. Although we all want to see the encyclopaedia available in Arabic (and other languages too) pinpointing crucial details such as date of birth and death, signature, education, exhibitions and examples of work is not as easy task when you have to start from scratch. The articles author makes the incorrect assumption that the individuals who are working on this project dont speak Arabic (untrue) then suggests that only Arabs should be allowed to write about Arab art - which is a shallow suggestion to put it nicely. Qatar (and you know how I disagreed with aspects of its foreign policy recently) has saved countless Arab masterpieces from Egypt, Syria and Iraq and has through Mathaf made these works available for loans (Barjeel borrowed UAE artist Hassan Sharifs Cow Belly for Terms and Conditions in Singapore Art Museum in 2013). Qatar/Mathaf has supported numerous Arab art exhibitions including Mona Hatoums current show at the Pinacoteca of Sao Paolo which debuted in Mathaf. They have published books for artists such as Algerias Adel Abdessemed, Lebanons Etel Adnan and Sudans Ibrahim Salahi. They have organised the first exhibition (Tea with Nefertiti) to emerge from the Arab world and tour major art museums in the West including Paris, Munich and Valencia (curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath). Since Dr Abdellah Karroum, a respected Moroccan curator, joined Mathaf in May 2013 it has dedicated the top floor exclusively to Arab art (I wish they allowed photography though) for people to admire the best the Arab art world has to offer. On display now are works by Dia Azzawi, Marwan, Manal Al Dowayan, Baya, Abdel Hadi Gazzar and another 95 other Arab artists. I went to see the show last month. I wonder if Mr Farouk Youssef has even bothered. P.S. This is a piece I write about Mathaf for Qantara goo.gl/eDd5qL
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 18:34:08 +0000
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