The museum dedicated to Indian Modernism MF Hussein opens in Qatar

The new museum of MF Hussein, one of India’s most important modernists, will be opened next month in Doha, Qatar.

Operating under the Aegis of the Qatar Foundation, officially known as Lawh wa Qalam: MF Husain Museum, the new institution will be the first museum dedicated to the artists and will draw inspiration from the newly established permanent collection, which contains Hussein’s works in a variety of mediums, from paintings and tapestries to photographs and films to installations and poetry and poetry.

The MF Husain Museum, which opened on November 28, will outline Husain’s artistic career, covering his rise in the 1950s until his death in 2011. The design of the building is based on the artist’s 2008 sketch. Among the works viewed will be a series of paintings about Arab civilizations, led by Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, president of the Qatar Foundation, and one of Hussein’s final works seeroo fi al ardh (2009), it will have its own dedicated gallery.

The 32,300-square-foot museum will be located in the educational city of Doha, which was developed by the Qatar Foundation and includes Qatar outposts at several U.S. universities, including Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Northwest, Northwest and Texas A&M.

Born in 1913 or 1915, Husain is known for his blocky, stereotyped paintings. He is a founding member of the important group of progressive artists in Mumbai, FN Souza and Sh Raza, a group of artists founded in 1947 in present-day Mumbai. He possessed Katari citizenship and settled in the country at the end of his life.

During his life, Hussein was included in the most important international art exhibitions of the day, including the Venice Biennale in 1952, the Tokyo Biennale in 1960 and the Bienal de São Paulo in 1971. His work is the subject of the main retrospective exhibition of the National Gallery of Modern Art in 1991, and most recently at the 2019 Arab Museum of Modern Art in Mathaf, Doha.

In March, Husain’s 1954 painting Untitled (G Yatra) Sold for $13.8 million in Christie’s New York, which marks both the artist’s record and the Indian modern art work. Kiran Nadar told Artnews This summer, she was a buyer of the work, saying “reflecting the deep historical roots of India, its evolving future, and Hussein’s dialogue with international modernism, a visual chronicle of India’s post-independence.”

The first part of the museum’s name, Lawh wa Qalam, translates to “canvas and pen”. Send to ArtnewsKholoud M. Al-Ali, Qatar Foundation’s executive director of community engagement and programming, said that “Lawh Wa Qalam” are “tools which, in Arabic traditions, represent knowledge, as they record and transmit wisdom, history, and creativity. The choice of this name for the museum reflects how its design was inspired by Maqbool Fida Husain’s own sketch, in which he envisioned the building itself as a Work of art, reflecting his lifelong pursuit experiment and its practice in multiple disciplines.”

Founded in 1995 by Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani and Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, the Qatar Foundation is an independent entity with the more well-known Qatar Museum, although the two organizations jointly own Mathaf: The Arab Modern Art Museum: The Arab Modern Art Museum in Doha. The main areas of charity focus of the Qatar Foundation are education, scientific research and community building.

In addition to helping bring international universities to Qatar, the foundation also manages the Qatar National Library and the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra. It also developed the Msheireb city centre in the city of Doha, where Art Basel Qatari art will be staged in February next year.

Al-Ali added: “By dedicating this museum to Maqbool Fida Husain and in its name, the Katar Foundation respects the artistic career, a career spanning half a century, shaped by multiculturalism and inspired by the heritage of world religions, civilizations, influential politicians and political images throughout history.”