(MENAFN- Gulf Times) HE the Chairperson of Qatar Museums (QM), Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani opened two significant exhibitions at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, marking the museum's 15th anniversary season.

The presentations, "Resolutions: Celebrating 15 Years of Mathaf" and "We Refuse_d", collectively highlight Mathaf's continued commitment to championing modern and contemporary Arab art while fostering critical dialogue and creative exchange across generations.

The exhibitions were unveiled in the presence of HE President of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Al-Thani, among other prominent dignitaries, artists and cultural figures from Qatar and around the world.

blade-->

Together, these exhibitions mark a milestone in Mathaf's legacy as a leading platform for artistic expression and scholarship in the Arab world, reaffirming its role within Qatar's broader cultural landscape and the nation's ongoing Evolution Nation campaign celebrating 50 years of cultural progress.

For her part, Curator at Mathaf Fatima Mostafawi told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Mathaf founding through two distinguished exhibitions affirms Mathaf's role as a key platform for artists from the region whose works leave an indelible mark on the history of Arab art.

She noted that Mathaf's first collection originated from artistic experiences embraced by the exhibition space and artist residency established by HE Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali al-Thani, which contributed to enriching the local and regional visual scene.

The first exhibition, "Resolutions: Celebrating 15 Years of Mathaf," explores the museum's journey through four key themes: its origins as an art centre thanks to the pioneering efforts of HE Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali al-Thani, President of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art; its extensive exhibition history; its engagement with diverse forms of knowledge dissemination in the Arab world; and its response to defining Arab identity through modern representations in the post-independence era.

The exhibition offers a renewed perspective on the museum's acclaimed permanent collection, tracing the evolution of Arab modernism through key moments in Mathaf's institutional history. It also presents a chronological overview of the most prominent exhibitions hosted by the museum over the past fifteen years, beginning with "Record: A Century of Modern Art," featuring 118 artists from the Mathaf collection.

This exhibition documented the evolution of modern art in the Arab world through multiple narratives, drawing its title from the poem *Record, I am an Arab by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

The exhibition further highlights significant moments in the museum's history, featuring landmark shows such as Told/Hidden/Revisited: 23 Narratives of Journeys Through Time and Space, Sai Goo Chang: Mirage, Shirin Neshat: Beyond, Sofia Al-Maria: Meditation Therapy, Nothing Lasts Forever... Taysir Al-Batniji, Swalif: Qatari Art Between Memory and Modernity, Mona Hatoum: Disturbance, Farid Belkahia: Dawn, Farid Belkahia: Towards a New Modernity, Mother Tongue: Selected Works by Inji Aflatoun, Jassim Zaini: Photography and Abstraction, Generations of the Revolution, The Doha Art Map, Maqbool Fida Hussain: The Sun's Antiquities, and The Moroccan Trilogy 1950-2020.

The exhibition culminates in recent showcases including Majaz: Contemporary Art in Qatar, Daoud Aoulad-Sayed: Stars of the Moment, Qatar: You Are Close to My Soul, Our Specters Are Your Specters, Promising Visions for a Pioneering Cinema, and Wafad Al-Hamad: The Geography of Imagination.

The second exhibition, "We Refuse_d", brings together works by more than 15 contemporary artists from across the Arab world. Through diverse artistic practices, these creators explore acts of rejection, resilience, and creativity-interrogating notions of continuity and resistance in the face of oppression, censorship, and displacement.

Emerging from an ongoing dialogue between artists and curators, the exhibition forms a collective statement and a shared space for solidarity. Evoking the spirit of the 19th-century Salon des Refusés, it captures both the fragility of optimism and the enduring strength required to create under challenging circumstances.

Many of the featured works are newly commissioned, underscoring the conviction that art must persist as a vital force within society. Through the framework of refusal, these works chart alternative paths of endurance and renewal, drawing from heritage while fostering community and reimagining the future.

At its heart, "We Refuse_d" is a space devoted to life, continuity, and the uncompromising necessity of artistic practice, even in times of adversity.

Participating artists include Taysir Batniji, Dar Sandy Hilal and Alessandro Betti, Barıs Dogrusoz, Samia Halaby, Majd Abdelhamid, Emily Jacir, Jumana Manna, Walid Raad, Khalil Rabah, Yasmine Eid Sabbagh, Nour Shantout, Suha Shoman, Dima Sarouji, Areeb Toukan, and Abdelhai Muslim Zarara. The exhibition is curated by Nadia Radwan and Wassef Kartoun. (QNA)

MENAFN03112025000067011011ID1110285156