In what will surely be one of the biggest blockbusters in the Middle East next year, Qatar Museums will stage the first exhibition in the region focused on the two legendary 20th-century artists Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti.
The show, which will take place at Fire Station Artist in Residence in Doha, is a collaboration between Qatar Museums, Paris’ Musée National Picasso, and the Fondation Giacometti. The first leg of the show, in fact, is currently on at the Parisian museum. Gathering over 80 works by these two emblematic artists, some of the highlights that will be included in the exhibition are Self Portrait (1901), Woman Throwing a Stone (1931) and The She Goat (1950) by Picasso; and Flower in Danger (1932), Tall Woman (1960), and Walking Man (1960) by Giacometti.
The exhibition, curated by Catherine Grenier, director of the Fondation Giacometti, will take place from February 22 to May 21, 2017, and represents the culmination of over two years of research. One of Grenier’s main tasks of was to shine a light on the similarities and relationship between these two artists, who are seemingly disparate in their approaches to art making, and had a 20-year age gap. Launched in 2005 and led by Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar Museums continues its ambitious plans to turn Qatar into a top art destination—not only in the Middle East, but also beyond.
In April this year, a new auction house in Doha, called AlBahie, joined the roster of Qatar Museums—which includes the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the Fire Station: Artists in Residence, among others.