in their home country, and granted the late exiled Indian master MF Husain Qatari citizenship in 2010. Qatar has also produced prominent artists who stand their own in the roster of contemporary Middle Eastern art, as evidenced in Swalif. Names such as Yousef Ahmad, Ali Hassan, Faraj Daham and Salman Al Malik appear regularly in international auctions, with Ahmad considered by many as one of the founding fathers of the contemporary art movement in Qatar. Famously using the cooled embers from his mother’s kitchen to draw on the side of the house’s whitewashed wall, he has become symbolic of a generation. “Ahmad’s story is beautiful,” remarks al markhiya gallery’s Heather Alnuweiri. “I think it shows where we started and how
far we have come with the new generation – today’s students at [Doha’s] Virginia Commonwealth University have the latest and greatest of absolutely everything. I think it will be Ahmad’s daughter’s generation who will really come into its own and I’m hoping there will be people to fill the very large shoes of these really prominent artists.” One also cannot deny the role that the auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s have played in the promotion of these artists to international audiences. In addition to providing documentation on some of them for the first time, the auction houses have also shown younger artists that art is a viable career. After all, “success stories inevitably encourage others,”
The new National Museum (below), slated to open in 2014. Architect Jean Nouvel says that he was inspired by the sand roses that form on the surface of the desert Image: Courtesy of Ateliers Jean Nouvel
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