qatar museums reveals summer/fall exhibition program

a look at qatar museums’ summer and fall exhibitions

Qatar Museums announces its upcoming exhibition program for summer and fall 2024 – spanning from a survey of art and architecture from Pakistan since its conception to a touring sports exhibition aligned with the Summer Olympics. The shows will be on view across Doha’s leading galleries, museums, and institutions, also providing visitors with a glimpse of collections from the eagerly anticipated Art Mill Museum and Lusail Museum.

Highlights include spotlights on two iconic artists from the West for the first time in the Middle East. The major exhibition, The Art and Influence of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), will examine the French artist’s challenging orientalist narratives, and the retrospective, Ellsworth Kelly at 100, will chart the American artist’s lifelong exploration of the relationship between form, colour, line, and space. London-based Forensic Architecture, a practice seeking to confront settler-colonial violence in Palestine, will too exhibit for the first time in the Gulf. Also focusing on voices from the MENA region, In the Footsteps of Ara Güler will showcase the Turkish artist’s photography of culture, architecture, and archeology across the nation.

Training Centre in Makli, Sindh. Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, directed by Yasmeen Lari | image by Noorulain Ali

MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today

MANZAR will reflect on the diverse landscape of Pakistan from its birth to present day. Approximately 200 paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, sculptures, and installations will together trace how creators have forged diverse personal and political languages, in dialogue or disjunction with regional styles and international art and world histories. Alongside newly commissioned works, the exhibition will showcase the emergency bamboo shelters of esteemed architect, Yasmeen Lari. Organized by the future Art Mill Museum, it will be on display at the National Museum of Qatar from 1 November 2024 – 31 January 2025.

Training Centre in Makli, Sindh. Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, directed by Yasmeen Lari | image by Noorulain Ali

Forensic Architecture

Forensic Architecture’s first solo exhibition in the Gulf will be on view at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art from 3 November 2024 – 22 February 2025. In the context of Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza, the practice will present new counter-investigations developed with Palestinian civil society groups in Qatar.

By revealing the grounded networks of relations that shape our political, intellectual, and artistic matrix, the investigations examine systematic executions and mass burial experienced by Palestinians in 1948. Alongside emphasizing the villages of Tantura and Dawayimeh ethnically cleansed in the 1900s, the project will also foreground the voices and living testimonies of survivors to reconstruct lost live-worlds.

situated interview with Dr. Adnan Yahya, 11 March 2023 | image © Forensic Architecture

In the Footsteps of Ara Güler

At The Museum of Islamic Art, In the Footsteps of Ara Güler will offer a glimpse into the life of the Turkish photojournalist, spotlighting his works depicting Istanbul’s inhabitants, historical landmarks, and archaeological findings. A section dedicated to his portraits of leading writers, artists, politicians, philosophers, and other notable figures of his time will follow, concluding with the screening of the film Hero’s End. The exhibition is curated by Sheikha Maryam Al Thani and the Ara Güler Museum team in Istanbul, and will show from 9 August – 9 November 2024.

Ara Güler, Aphrodisias, Aydın, 1958 – 1962 |image © Ara Güler, Ara Güler Museum

The Art and Influence of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904)

Organized by the Lusail Museum in collaboration with Mathaf, the exhibition will both celebrate and reevaluate the artist’s legacy throughout his lifetime until the present day. Its first section is biographical and examines Gérôme’s Orientalist practice, while the central gallery explores the dialogue between art and objectivity, and authenticity and imagination in Middle Eastern photography.

The journey culminates by showcasing modern and contemporary art and ideas that resonate with the legacy of Gérôme, while seeking to challenge outdated ideas pertaining to geography and identity. The exhibition will be on view from 22 October 2024 – 22 February 2025.

Veiled Circassian Lady, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1876, OM.696

Ellsworth Kelly at 100

Ellsworth Kelly at 100 will present over 60 works spanning the entirety of the American artist’s (1923–2015) career — from his early days as a burgeoning artist in post-war Paris, through his final years as an icon of Modern art.

With renowned and also rarely-seen works, the exhibition will serve as the first major introduction to audiences from the MENASA region to Kelly’s work, which profoundly influenced Modern and contemporary art, design, and aesthetics. It will be on view from 31 October 2024 – February 2025 at M7, which played host to the inaugural Design Doha Biennial.

Ellsworth Kelly, Painting for a White Wall, 1952. Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland | image by Ron Amstutz, © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation

Splendours of the Atlas: A Voyage Through Morocco’s Heritage

As part of Qatar-Morocco 2024 Years of Culture, Splendours of the Atlas: A Voyage Through Morocco’s Heritage will investigate the multifaceted heritage of Islamic Morocco from 2 November 2024 – 8 March 2025. Through historical artefacts, manuscripts, ceramics, costumes, and jewellery — much of it on view for the first time — the exhibition highlights the significance of key cities in Morocco in fostering religious scholarship and scientific advances, as well as the pivotal role crafts have played in the country’s identity historically and in the present day.

Esports | A Game Changer

Organized by the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, Esports | A Game Changer will explore the evolution of esports from niche origins to celebrate mainstream megaevents, addressing socio-cultural challenges and forecasting its future trajectory. The touring exhibition will open in Paris on 23 July to coincide with the Summer Olympic Games.