another look at Cai Guo-Qiang's Doha exhibit and the historical context for the relationship between the Arab world and China

Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) via Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art

Listen to Dr. Jackie Armijo explain the historical context behind the Cai Guo-Qiang: Saraab exhibition at Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art.

Another Look with Dr. Jackie Armijo

www.youtube.com

Qatar University professor Dr. Jackie Armijo talks about the historical context for the relationship between the Arab world and China, particularly with Cai's hometown of Quanzhou through a look at the installation "Homecoming" at Mathaf.

World’s biggest buyer of contemporary art?

A leading art paper has called the tiny peninsula the world’s biggest buyer of contemporary art, spending around a billion dollars since 2005.

Takashi Murakami’s exhibition “Ego” opens at the Qatar Museum.

Qatar's arty investments

youtube

From the $250mn purchase of Cezanne's The Card Players to investment in Takashi Murakami's Ego exhibit - first in Versailles and now Doha - Qatar's elite are spending hundreds of millions of in making the country a world-class destination.

Lot's of big art events going in Qater - want to visit again soon!

A video teaser to Takashi Murakami's first solo exhibition in the Middle East. Murakami - EGO will be on view from February 9 to June 24, 2012 in the Al-Riwaq exhibition hall, located on the grounds of the Museum of Islamic Art on Doha's Corniche. The exhibition will immerse visitors in a fantasy world conceived by the renowned Japanese artist, capturing the way Murakami channels the ecstasy and anxiety of contemporary culture.

Behind the scenes interview with Takashi Murakami - EGO, Doha Qatar 2012.

www.youtube.com

Behind the scenes with Takashi Murakami as he and his Kaikai Kiki team prepare to launch his first exhibition in Middle East. Opens 9 FEB 2012. For more info...

Louise Bourgeois Solo Show to Open in Qatar | Gallerist NY

www.galleristny.com/2012/01/9597/ - Cached

The first solo survey of the work of Louise Bourgeois in the Middle East will open tomorrow at the Qatar Museum Authority Gallery. The show will “contextualize” ...

William of Arabia: Chinese Contemporary Art in the Middle East!

williamjandersen.blogspot.com
One of my favorite artists now has a solo show up in Qatar! I believe Doha's Mathaf, the Arab Museum of Modern Art, is really smart in bringing in a big name artist from outside the region, but also just as importantly, not the typical Western artist. I like Cai Guo-Qiang because he consistently comes up with thoughtful but unconventional ways to talk about his own heritage as well as historical and contemporary global trade and exchange. His artwork is smart but fun and easily appreciated by a larger audience. I hope to go soon!

The Most Expensive Painting Ever $250m Bought by Qatari Royal Family

www.artkuwait.org

Qatar has purchased a Paul Cézanne painting, The Card Players, for more than $250 million. The deal, in a single stroke, sets the highest price ever paid for a work of art and upends the modern art market. If the...

William of Arabia: World's Biggest Contemporary Art Buyer? Qatar!

Jul 20, 2011

You may know Qatar as the home of Al Jazeera but this small kingdom in the Persian Gulf is a major contemporary art buyer, according to Art Newspaper. see also: more on Qatar as the world's biggest contemporary art buyer ...

http://williamjandersen.blogspot.com/

William of Arabia: more on Qatar as the world's biggest ...

Jul 20, 2011

Qatar as the world's biggest contemporary art buyer · www.artkuwait.org. see also: World's Biggest Contemporary Art Buyer? Qatar! Posted by William Andersen at 2:15 PM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to ...

http://williamjandersen.blogspot.com/

William of Arabia: Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei? - Doha, Qatar

Jun 15, 2011

Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei? - Doha, Qatar. I got permission to put this "Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei?" poster up in this little shop: Posted by William Andersen at 5:31 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...

http://williamjandersen.blogspot.com/

Art as the politics of the impossible

In light of a recent art exhibition in Doha, Hamid Dabashi writes that art must respond to a renewed Arab consciousness that is aware of what is happening in the Arab World. 

Cai Guo-Giang's opening at Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha [Hamid Dabashi/ Al Jazeera]

Art as the politics of the impossible

aje.me

Art scenes in the Arab world should reflect and anticipate the art that will emerge from these historical times.

Chinese Contemporary Art in the Middle East!

One of my favorite artists now has a solo show up in Qatar!  I believe Doha's Mathaf, the Arab Museum of Modern Art, is really smart in bringing in a big name artist from outside the region, but also just as importantly, not the typical Western artist.   I like Cai Guo-Qiang because he consistently comes up with  thoughtful but unconventional ways to talk about his own heritage as well as historical and contemporary global trade and exchange.  His artwork is smart but fun and easily appreciated by a larger audience.  I hope to go soon!

Pictured above: Installation view of Fragile (2011), Gunpowder on 480 panels of porcelain, 318 x 1800 cm (125 3/16 x 708 11/16 in.) overall, approximately 30 x 39.75 cm (11 13/16 x 15 5/8 in.) each panel, 480 panels in total, Commissioned by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Photo by Hiro Ihara, Courtesy Cai Studio

Link to Cai Guo-Qiang's Exhibit in Doha

And from Art Kuwait: 

www.artkuwait.org

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar – Exhibition of Cai Guo-Qiang

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art presents Cai Guo-Qiang: Saraab, a major exhibition featuring newly commissioned work by Cai Guo-Qiang. As Cai’s first solo exhibition in the Middle East and the first single-artist exhibition presented by Mathaf, Saraab opens new...

A lot of GOOD NEWS from the Middle East!

A lot of GOOD NEWS (all we usually hear is the bad) from the Middle East being posted on en.v :

Arabian Oryx Back From Brink of Extinction

www.envearth.com

Forty years ago the Arabian Oryx was extinct in the wild. Today this large antelope, native to the Arabian Peninsula, is back from the brink with 1,000 animals across five Middle Eastern countries, thanks to a breeding program and series of re-introductions. It is an unprecedented conservation succe...

Young Start-Ups Shaping Egypt's Future

www.envearth.com

Despite the tough conditions, many young entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the new-found optimism to start businesses and help build their country's economic future. Cairo's notorious traffic inspired Mostafa Elbeltagy and four friends, all aged between 23 and 30, to start Bey2ollak, a smartphones...

Nature Reserve in Jordan Is Growing Organic

www.envearth.com

A farm in the Mujib Biosphere Reserve has started producing organic crops and herbs with the aim of providing a model that encourages water-efficient techniques and the use of chemical-free fertilisers in agriculture. Spread over 10 dunums, the model farm is cultivating medicinal herbs and vegetable...

Qatar to Build Environment-Friendly Mosques

www.envearth.com

Qatar's new mosques will be built according to environment friendly models, a special committee appointed to review designs of the religious buildings has said. The panel formed to review designs of all mosques in the country is studying 18 model designs to select the most appropriate to meet the re...

From The Farm to Your Table

www.envearth.com

Come September 17 you will be able to get a wide range of organic fruit and vegetables, all grown locally, at the click of a mouse or at a weekly farmers' market. Making this possible is a Dubai company called RIPE which will supply fresh produce at various points, including twice weekly at farmers ...

Qatar to Invest In 1,400 New Local Farms

www.envearth.com

More signs that the Gulf States are slowly recognizing the importance of food sustainability. Qatar has announced plans to establish 1,400 farms to improve its food production and also train more people to work in the agricultural sector to improve productivity. Existing farms were working at only ...

and more:  http://www.envearth.com/index.php

About en.v:
Through a multi-faceted approach, The en.v Initiative seeks to further and support the research and development of individuals and organizations in the fields of education, health, environment, economics, business, culture, human rights, etc. Furthermore, The en.v Initiative attempts to employ an innovative attitude and methodology that will communicate itself to all sections of society without bias to age, gender, ethnicity, race, or nationality.

We ultimately hope to nurture the development of a new kind of citizen in the Arab world – one who is alert, aware and conscious of the effects his or her decisions and actions have on society at large and on the environment as a whole.
http://www.envearth.com/index.php?file=c-static&page=About_Us

more on Qatar as the world’s biggest contemporary art buyer - from Art Kuwait

From:  Art Kuwait

Qatar as the world’s biggest contemporary art buyer

www.artkuwait.org

see also:  World’s Biggest Contemporary Art Buyer?  Qatar!

World’s Biggest Contemporary Art Buyer? Qatar!

Shocker of the Day: Qatar World’s Biggest Contemporary Art Buyer

hyperallergic.com

You may know Qatar as the home of Al Jazeera but this small kingdom in the Persian Gulf is a major contemporary art buyer, according to Art Newspaper.

see also:  more on Qatar as the world’s biggest contemporary art buyer - from Art Kuwait

Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei? - Doha, Qatar

I got permission to put this "Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei?" poster up in this little shop:

Modern Arab Art conference December 14-17 in Doha, Qatar

The Museum of Modern Arab Art is expected to be completed in 2011.

The Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey (AMCA) is organizing its first conference, titled “Modern Arab Art: Objects, Histories, and Methodologies.” This two-day event will be hosted in collaboration with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar, and will take place December 14–17, 2010, in conjunction with the museum’s inauguration events.

The museum will use its preeminent collection of modern and contemporary Arab art as a catalyst for critical and creative exchanges across diverse audiences, and this conference will bring together both established and emerging scholars working throughout the world in order to interrogate potent issues of concern that define and shape modern Arab art today. The conference will also historicize and contextualize the production of modern Arab art and modernity—and by extension the “contemporary”—through thematic and historiographic inquires into the field.