Exhibition on revisiting Beirut’s 1958-1978 history at Mathaf

The Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar has opened its doors to a new exhibition that showcases the most comprehensive collection of artistic production and modern Arab history to date. Entitled “Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility”, the exhibition features over 225 works of art and 300 archival papers, sourced from 36 collections around the world, and highlights a pivotal period in Arab history, spanning from the 1958 political crisis in Lebanon to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1975.

The exhibit, which previously premiered in Germany and France in 2022, is part of Qatar Creates, a yearly national cultural initiative that aims to celebrate the diversity of cultural activities in the country. The exhibition will be on view from March 16 to August 5 in Doha.

In a press statement, H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Chairperson of Qatar Museums, expressed the importance of art and the role of the art museum in preserving culture, saying, “One of the many functions of art is to recollect or reimagine a home that has been lost. One of the many functions of an art museum is to create a new home, if only a temporary one, where people who are scattered can come together for a moment, pause, and reflect.”