Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art is a free museum of modern and contemporary art from Qatar, the Arab world and the Arab diaspora, in Education City, Al Rayyan, about 20 minutes west of central Doha. Run by Qatar Museums since it opened on 30 December 2010, it suits art lovers and anyone curious about Arab modernism beyond Doha's big landmark museums.

From private collection to national museum

Mathaf, Arabic for museum, grew out of a private collection. Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed Al Thani began buying modern Arab art when few institutions took the field seriously, with the aim of a museum that could represent and support Arab artists. The collection later came under Qatar Museums and was reported at more than 9,000 works in 2014. The museum opened with Sajjil, an exhibition surveying a century of modern Arab art, and in 2025 it marked its 15th anniversary with a pair of exhibitions, one looking back at its origins.

A converted school redesigned by Jean-François Bodin

Mathaf occupies a converted school, redesigned by the French architect Jean-François Bodin into white galleries with controlled light. It was intended as a temporary home, and its low, plain form keeps attention on the work.

Permanent collection and changing exhibitions

Displays alternate between selections from the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. The collection covers painting, sculpture and works on paper from the late 19th century onward, including pioneers of modernism in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon and North Africa, and movements such as the Baghdad Modern Art Group, as well as contemporary artists. Talks, film screenings, workshops and calligraphy classes run alongside the shows.

Personal photography without flash is generally allowed in the permanent collection, though some temporary exhibitions forbid it. Food, drink, large bags and selfie sticks are not allowed in the galleries.

Artists and landmark exhibitions

Mathaf describes its holding as the world's largest collection of modern and contemporary Arab art, spanning roughly the 1840s to today across about 5,500 square metres. Artists in the collection include Etel Adnan, Farid Belkahia, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Shirin Neshat, Wael Shawky and Chaibia Talal. It was the first museum in Qatar given to modern and contemporary art. Past shows include Cai Guo-Qiang: Saraab (December 2011 to May 2012), the museum's first self-organised solo exhibition with seventeen new commissions, and Shirin Neshat's Afterwards (2014 to 2015), her first solo show in the region.