Modern Painters

72 MODERN PAINTERS JUNE/JULY 2016BLOUINARTINFO.COMWhen I run into him in Marchat the elevator bank at theW Doha Hotel, it feels staged.House music plays at a tastefulvolume for nine o’clock inthe morning. Koons’s smile iscartoonish and his gray skinnytie impeccably knotted. Afrequent guest of the Qatariroyal family, the artist is in thedesert peninsula’s capital toheadline the New York TimesArt for Tomorrow conference.For a cool $1,995, attendeesfrom around the globe enjoy athree-day confab, which alsofeatures Marina Abramovic ́,Jeffrey Deitch, Marc Spiegler,and Hans Ulrich Obrist, aswell as cyborg artists (“an artmovement where artists expressthemselves through newsenses created by the unionbetween cybernetics and theirorganism,” according to thenewspaper of record), sheikhs,and corporate philanthropists,all in conversation with Timesjournalists Roger Cohen,Robin Pogrebin, and FarahNayeri. The convener of theevent is Sheikha Al-Mayassabint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-``````and $300 million forGauguin’s Nafea Faa Ipoipo,neither of which is currentlyon public view.Is art here just a quirkyinitiative for elites, or for thecollective good? Certainlya great deal of the cultural-construction frenzy is accessibleto the masses. The governmentUHFODLPHGDQDUWLÀFLDOLVODQGfrom the sea for the I.M. Pei–designed Museum of IslamicArt. Back on the mainland,French architect Jean Nouvelis building a whimsicalNational Museum out of stackeddisks that is bolder thanany Star Wars set, due to opennext year. A $5.5 billionneighborhood-developmentproject is under way, with fournew museums that excavatelocal histories. A half-hour driveaway is Education City, wheresix landmark Americanuniversities, including CarnegieMellon and Northwestern, haveestablished colonies with theJHQHURXVÀQDQFLDOVXSSRUWRIthe Qatar Foundation, thoughpoor suburban planning makesa car necessary to travelbetween the campuses. Nearbystands Rem Koolhaas’s QatarFoundation building, not farfrom Damien Hirst’s 14 massivesculptures in bronze depictinga fetus’s development into anewborn, entitled MiraculousJourney. A stadium designedby the late Zaha Hadid, alayered ellipse inspired by localsailboats, is being assembledfor the 2022 World Cup.Sixty miles into the desert, thegovernment commissionedRichard Serra to create aseries of towering sculpturesentitled East-West/West-East, 2014. (The price tag:$120 million.) And with Koonsand Koolhaas, among others,on hand for openings andkeynotes, at times it feels as ifDoha is not only collectingart, but also collecting artists.$WÀUVWEOXVKDUWKHUHis but a commodity, highbrowkitsch, a balloon dog for theroyals’ never-ending birthdayparty. But as easy as it is tobe skeptical and cynical aboutthese top-down efforts, theroyal family has put anemphasis on education initia-tives. Likewise, the attempt tocreate a museumgoing culture``````Thani: chairman of QatarMuseums Authority, sister ofthe country’s emir, andone of the world’s wealthiestart collectors.Art for Tomorrow boastsa buffet of internationalperspectives on cultural andurban change, highlightingQatar’s role in this New WorldOrder. Wandering throughDoha’s museums and speakingwith artists, I am wowed bythe scale of the state’s ambitions:All the art that money can buyis a lot of art indeed. But theLQÁDPPDWRU\LVVXHVRIWKHregion’s present—censorship,labor rights, dynasticsuccession—are left unaddressedin the Times’s plenary sessions.Rather, the proceedingscirculate around the placidlexicon of TED Talks, platitudesof futurism veering into theapolitical and commercial. Butin Qatar, you cannot separatepolitics from art, in large partbecause the emir’s family isthe patron of the arts.Inside Doha’s Mathaf ArabMuseum of Modern Art,however, provocative gestures``````can be found, albeit throughartifacts of the past. Canvasesby Egyptian painter Inji(IÁDWRXQ²WDFNOHtaboo issues. A new Museum ofSlavery gestures towardQatar’s labor crisis. I beginto understand that the country’sredlines are undoubtedlybroken, often to little fanfare.Artists tend to shrug at rules,but I keep coming back to theinescapable fact: In Qatar,dissent might land you in jail.``````“I love the ready-made becauseof the idea of acceptance,”Koons tells me, “that everythingis in play and that everythingis perfect in its own being.”It’s little wonder that he isattracted to Qatar. The mini-state’s boom mirrors theartist’s own rise to fame. Twodecades ago, Doha had noskyline. It was just a smatteringRIRQHRUWZRVWRU\HGLÀFHVon the desert coast. Today, thesun glistens on glass towers,cylinders, space-age shapes. “Asa nation that is growing veryquickly and embracing globalculture and joining in thenarrative of global art, I thinkit’s quite obvious for us tobring in contemporary artists,”Sheikha Al-Mayassa saidat the Times conference. “Infact, we’re trying to bringcontemporary artists here toinspire young artists to seewhat’s happening around theworld...with completerespect to our tradition andconservative culture.”Within the six countries ofthe Arabian Gulf, there aremultiple art scenes operatingon a variety of local, regional,and international levels, fromDubai’s reenactment ofa Chelsea-esque warehousedistrict (Alserkal Avenue)to Sharjah’s cozy communityof cutting-edge museums,bolstered by a popular biennial.Doha’s scene has several nodes,and Sheikha Al-Mayassa istheir primary driver. The linebetween her private collectionand the massive museumexpansion campaign is vague.As part of her purported$1 billion buying budget, she issaid to have spent somewherein the ballpark of $250 millionfor Cézanne’s The Card Players (^) OPPOSITE: WEN-YOU CAI. PREVIOUS SPREAD: WIKICOMMONSDoha: Plasticand ready-made, it’s acity built forJeff Koons.O