REVIEW THE POET AND THE SCULPTOR T Doha does it again with rousing exhibits from East and West. Myrna Ayad reviews two blockbuster shows by Lebanon’s Etel Adnan and America’s Richard Serra. wo days after Ed Dolman, Execu- The shift in high-ranking officials at QMA affect 2015’s Qatar-Saudi Arabia Year of Cul- tive Director and Acting CEO of the Qatar Muse- comes amidst rumours of budget cuts in an or- ture. “I am working on next year’s exhibitions as ums Authority (QMA), announced his resigna- ganisation, which ArtReview reported spends ap- planned. No one has told me to work differently,” tion, on 8 April the now-private entity unveiled proximately $1 billion on art annually and is led said Engelen, who is managing the project. In- East-West/West-East, Richard Serra’s awe-inspiring by HE Sheikha Al-Mayassa Al-Thani. “The budget deed, however alarming these changes are in commissioned steel monoliths placed in the is already enormous, so a 15 per cent cut isn’t the Gulf’s diplomatic relations, in Doha it felt like Brouq Nature Reserve, followed by the American all that dramatic,” said a senior QMA employee. business as usual. “There’s no stopping Al-Mayas- minimalist artist’s works at the Al-Riwaq exhibition This year is the Gulf state’s partnership with Bra- sa,” commented another senior QMA rep. “Noth- space and the QMA Gallery in Katara. “It was hard zil as part of its annual Year of Culture initiative, ing will affect her cultural mission.” for Ed to keep commuting between London and for which Doha will stage an exhibition of Brazil- New York to be with his family,” said QMA’s Direc- ian and Qatari artists in September at Al-Riwaq. tor of Public Art Programmes Jean-Paul Engelen, The big shocker came in early March when the TREASURE TROVE who, like Dolman, is an ex-Christie’s rep. QMA has UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain withdrew their It is always a joy to walk into Mathaf: Arab Muse- since appointed Mansour Al-Khater as CEO – a ambassadors from Doha, citing “the protection, um of Modern Art, which has put on stellar shows Qatari national whose previous work experience security and stability” of their nations following curated by top notch curators, among them the includes top positions at Qatar Telecom and Qatar allegations of Qatar’s close ties with the Muslim indefatigable duo Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath Petroleum. “[Al-Khater] doesn’t have an art back- Brotherhood. Politics aside in what has been a as well as Pier Luigi Tazzi and Hans Ulrich Obrist; ground, but he’s here to manage the running of harmonious relationship between Gulf states, the latter who curated the current Etel Adnan In things,” commented a senior QMA staff member. cultural protagonists wondered how this may All Her Dimensions. It is unfortunate though, that 60 This page (left) and facing page: Installation views of works by Etel Adnan. Right: Excerpts from Adnan’s writings. since its inception in 2010, Mathaf has showcased versation with Obrist in Carteret, New Jersey, de- paintings, say Sfeir-Semler are “light and poetic in Modern Arab treasures from its vaults all but thrice. cided on her exhibition’s name. “We won’t use the front of those which are strong and dry”. It would Its director, Abdellah Karroum, confirmed a long- word painting,” she had said. “We can call it Etel Ad- have been impossible, she says, to have staged a awaited show in September “curated by all of us nan In All Her Dimensions.” Though the 89-year-old complete retrospective of Adnan’s work, because [Mathaf staff] and it will include new acquisitions”. artist has not seen her exhibition as she has been neither the artist nor her dealers kept “images or Mathaf’s ground floor is occupied by Turbulence, advised against air travel by her doctors, Adnan’s track” over the years, though this exhibition is “ret- Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum’s largest-ever show presence could be profoundly felt, beginning rospective in character”. In the first gallery is one of in the Arab world, reviewed in the March/April with her voice, which narrates excerpts from her Adnan’s tapestries, a medium she first experiment- issue of Canvas. The top floor is consumed with many books. It is the voice of an old woman but it ed with in the 1960s while teaching philosophy at Lebanese-born Adnan’s works – or as the exhibition is the spirit of a young girl. The show, say Mathaf’s the University of California. “I always felt like I was title suggests, her ‘dimensions’: cartographies, Assistant Curators Tamar Hemmes and Leonore- missing something and I realised that in the Mid- drawings, films, leporellos, novels, paintings, Namkha Beschi, was “done over Skype” as Obrist dle East, when I grew up, even the non-rich people plays, poems, tapestries and more. There is a suffered an ear infection while Adnan’s Beirut/ had rugs in their homes. So my feet were missing sweet-and-sour, chalk-and-cheese kind of feel- Hamburg dealer Andrée Sfeir-Semler oversaw the them,” she says in the catalogue of her tapestries, ing at Mathaf’s two exhibitions: however deli- hanging. “I think they did a a wonderful job and which were never based on existing paintings. cate and beautiful Hatoum’s works are, one’s they gave me so much space,” said Adnan over reaction to them is gut-wrenching, whereas the phone from Paris, where she is now based. Adnan’s vibrant colours and poetry are laced The first gallery features paintings from VIVACITY AND VIGOUR throughout her oeuvre, leaving one, simply as early as 1959, displayed against a wall with Another gallery features more of Adnan’s trade- put, happy. Adnan’s delicate black-and-white works on paper mark abstract paintings, all small in size, ren- of New York bridges. “I like paper. Canvas is more dered in vibrant colours with a palette knife, expensive than paper, but it shouldn’t be,” says which she has used since the 1960s. Size doesn’t PAINTINGS OF PROSE Adnan. “Paper absorbs, it’s dainty, you feel like matter with these gems, their energy is intense, As per an excerpt from the show’s catalogue, it paper is a person, it drinks the ink, and the Chi- even gripping. “They are small, yes, but their was on Christmas Day in 2012 that Adnan, in con- nese and Japanese understand this more.” The spirit isn’t,” says Adnan. Some feature a hallmark 61 REVIEW This page: Richard Serra. East-West/West- East. 2014. Four weatherproof steel plates. 1670 x 400 x 1350 cm and 1470 x 400 x 1350 cm. Facing page: Installation views of Richard Serra’s Passage Of Time. 2012. Weatherproof steel in two parts, each comprised of two identitcal conical/elliptical sections of four plates inverted relative to each other. 410 x 665 cm. Photography by Myrna Ayad. of the artist’s painting practice: the red square. “When I don’t know what to do with a canvas, I draw the red square. I don’t know where it comes from, it’s half a century old,” muses the artist. “I must like that colour; it talks back to me.” And then there is a cluster of watercolours of Adnan’s beloved Mount Tamalpaïs in Califor- nia, which she began painting in the 1970s and which became the subject of her 1986 book, Journey To Mount Tamalpaïs. “She once said that Mount Tamalpaïs is the most important person she has ever met,” commented Hemmes. Adnan must miss her mountain while in Paris. “It’s not in front of my eyes, but once in a while, it comes on imposing any geometry on it because the land Al-Thani, was taken as a child to see the Arabian its own,” she admits. defines where the pieces have to be placed,” said oryx, Qatar’s national animal. A room features two films, one of Adnan and the artist to Canvas. The Serra-Qatar relationship, East-West/West-East is arresting – in sight, scale the other, Motions, by her, of snaps of everyday life like those of Hirst, Guo-Qiang, Murakami and oth- and in situ. Set in a natural corridor formed by gyp- shot with a Super-8 camera. Poignantly, a wall in ers, is not new. It was Chinese architect IM Pei, sum plates, the four monoliths – at 14.7 metres the exhibition is plastered with verses from Adnan’s who was brought out of retirement to design the and 16.7 metres tall – cross the peninsula of the writings, an aesthetic element also installed in the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, who reportedly Brouq Nature Reserve connecting the waters of artist’s show at Sfeir-Semler’s Beirut branch in 2013. introduced Sheikha Al-Mayassa to Serra. By the the Gulf. It took five days, said Serra, to install East- In fact, the Mathaf show greatly resembles the lat- time Engelen joined QMA in 2011, Serra’s projects West/West-East and over a period of three weeks, ter exhibit through the dedicated rooms, inclusive in the Qatari capital were already confirmed. Soon he had missed visiting it all but four days. “I think of one with Adnan’s leporellos – Japanese folded after the 2011 installation of his tallest steel sculp- anyone going to the desert realises that their life is books in which she drew, painted and wrote. “I love ture 7 – comprised of seven plates and inspired a nanosecond and they have to contemplate their Hans,” she says. “He lives in a commercial world but by 12th century Afghan minarets – Sheikha Al- existence,” he says. “One thing that I found strange he’s not commercial. He is a free mind and I just let Mayassa, said Serra, suggested that he create a – as soon as it went up, it looked very old. It looked him make all the decisions.” work for the Qatari landscape. “What landscape?” like not only it belonged there, but that it had also asked the artist, who was then taken by Faisal Al- been there.” In addition to Sheikha Al-Mayassa, art Nuaimi from QMA’s Archaeological Department world illuminati – among them Larry Gagosian, NATURE’S DECREE on a recce around the country. Incidentally, the Saleh Barakat, HE Sheikh Hassan Al-Thani and Ger- As far as decisions go, it was the landscape that location of East-West/West-East – about 60 kilo- mano Celant (the latter rumoured to be working dictated the placement of Serra’s East-West/West- metres from Doha – is the site where Sheikha on a project for Doha) – were present at the unveil- East – “a kind of logical understanding without Al-Mayassa’s father, HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa ing of East-West/West-East and together walked to 62 “Public art projects take time. The Middle East is very much part of this programme and there are plans to work on its growth.” Jean-Paul Engelen and from the structures, that run over a kilometre a view into his evolution. Early lead works, such as a bodily interaction with it. “You are being impli- in length. The thing with Serra’s works is that they the One Ton Prop (House of Cards) lent by New York’s cated and pulled through in a flow of space,” says compel engagement – people walked up to and Museum of Modern Art features four plates that lit- Serra. “It changes its shape and you have to take a touched the columns, or stood in awe before each. erally hold onto each other. counter step to keep up with its unfolding.” Many present did not want to leave so soon – the Bought by the Fairholme Foundation in the tranquillity there is unparalleled. “Probably coming USA, no prices for Passage Of Time as well as East- out here alone would be better,” smiled Serra. SIZE MATTERS West/West-East were disclosed. Finance informa- A similar serenity can be felt within Double One would be hard-pressed to identify which of tion often leaks from an organisation with sub- Torqued Ellipse III, the artist’s 1999 work placed on Serra’s three venues – Al-Riwaq, the Brouq Nature stantial budgets with such gargantuan projects, the grounds outside Katara. The circular maze-like Reserve and the QMA Gallery – holds the pièce but Serra’s was one that was “buckled between piece has an almost maternal, shielding feel to it de rèsistance, but Passage Of Time at Al-Riwaq is his lawyer and QMA” said a representative of in the way that it draws one in. “People find it very largely in the lead. However many times one has QMA. An actual figure is almost irrelevant – one sheltering,” added Serra. “You cannot just watch; attended shows in the 5000-square-metre hall, can assume that #SerraQatar, as the venture has you have to go around and understand the piece. no exhibition or artwork swallowed up the space been dubbed on Instagram, is QMA’s most ex- Live with it. Understand it. Measure it with your the way the two 66.5-metre-long 4.1-metre-high pensive to date, for sheer size, weight, scale and body. It is a very interesting process,”says the shows’ German-fabricated steel curves do. Passage Of celebrity alone. Protagonists of Middle Eastern art curator Alfred Pacquement, former director of the Time is intimidating, welcoming, provocative and can only hope that the region’s artists will one day Musée National d’art Moderne, Centre Pompidou. enchanting all at once and took nine days to in- get a fraction of such sums. “Public art projects take In the QMA Gallery are sculptures by the artist from stall. Upon entry, the space unwinds as one walks time. The Middle East is very much part of this pro- as old as 1969 up until 2013 as well as paintings through it and also, says Serra “implies a certain gramme and there are plans to work on its growth,” “which he calls ‘works on paper’,” laughed Pacque- kind of disequilibrium”. The first half leans to one confirmed Engelen. We wait with bated breath. ment. The paintings are covered with a thick coat direction and closer to the centre, swings to an- of black paint stick that Serra then pushes onto the other. Things are not physically or mentally as Etel Adnan In All Her Dimensions and Richard paper. The non-chronological exhibition surveys they seem in Passage Of Time, which, as its name Serra run until 6 July. For more information visit various aspects of the artist’s practice and offers suggests, toys with the concept of time through www.qma.com.qa 63
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