The first major online archive of Arab artists and their works has been launched by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha. The Mathaf Encyclopedia of Modern Art and the Arab World (MEMAAW) aims to provide a major resource for Arab artists and their histories and was founded in collaboration with Qatar Museums and Qatar Foundation.
We think this is brilliant news on The Art Blog. The masters of the Arab world were keystones to the development of the contemporary art that we all know and love, so we should treat them as artistic treasures.
The encyclopedia was initiated by Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani, as part of the development of Mathaf and knowledge around its collection. The entires and biographies in the online archive have been written by scholars and independent researchers, under the direction of Professor Nada Shabout, consulting Director of Research at Mathaf.
It is bilingual and free to access and, most importantly it will standardise the data on Arab artists.
* More info can be found on the www.encyclopedia.mathaf.org