At a Glance

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art sits inside Doha's Education City and is dedicated to modern and contemporary art of the Arab world and its diaspora. Opened in 2010, its roughly 9,000-piece holdings are widely regarded as the most comprehensive collection of 20th- and 21st-century Arab art anywhere. Mathaf simply means "museum" in Arabic.

A Former School Turned Museum

The building is a late-1980s Qatari girls' school converted by French architect Jean-François Bodin. The classroom grid was preserved, producing Mathaf's signature rhythm of intimate, high-ceilinged galleries. The founding collection came from Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed Al Thani, who began acquiring Arab modern art in 1986. Qatar Museums took over and expanded it into a public institution in 2010.

Must-See Works

• Marwan Kassab-Bachi — heavy-impasto portraits from the Syrian-Berlin master.
• Farid Belkahia — Moroccan modernism, in leather and vegetable dyes.
• Kadhim Hayder — a founding figure of Iraqi modernism, best known for paintings based on the Ashura narrative.
• Etel Adnan — small-format Mediterranean landscapes that reward a close look.
• Contemporary photography & video archive — new work from Egyptian, Tunisian, and Palestinian artists is rotated in regularly.

Visiting Tips

Mathaf is tucked deep inside Education City and hard to spot from the main road. Use the Doha Metro Green Line to Qatar National Library and catch the shuttle, or take a 15-minute cab from downtown. Admission is free (some special shows are ticketed). Late afternoons, after the heat breaks, work best. Walk five minutes to OMA's Qatar National Library to round out a half-day of contemporary Qatari architecture and culture.