Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi with his collection at the Maraya Art Centre in Al Qasba. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National
Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, is a journalist, political commentator, art collector and founder of Barjeel Art Foundation (UAE) wrote a post about the Museum of Modern Art with a critical observation and some recommendations. It was posted more than 1 month ago and I was awaiting some reaction but… no reaction at all from any journalist or authorities or even from the Director of the Museum.
” The reason for this post is to highlight the Arab artists (my passion) who are included in the collection of Kuwait’s National Council for Culture & Art and Letters (letters?), the museum’s collection owner although non-Arabs such as the great Naser Oveisi of Iran are represented. Overall the collection is pretty impressive although I’ve seen stronger collections in Kuwaiti homes.
However, the curation is below standard (actually almost doesn’t exist). Name tags are left on the ground, or sometimes on the artwork. The spelling is very poor, so is the lighting, and no description whatsoever exists. So much can be done with the museum to bring the permanent collection up to par. They could approach Qatar’s Mathaf Museum of Modern Art or the Sharjah Art Foundation in the UAE to assist with overhauling the display of the artworks and the interior. I don’t think the entire project should cost more than a couple of million dollars and one year of work, including a website, signboards, lightning, painting, display, cataloguing, archiving and perhaps a two-day art symposium to relaunch the museum, inviting scholars and curators to discuss the artists in the collection.
…….
So if you know someone who can get the word across to the authorities in Kuwait please remind them to spare a few dollars for this wonderful museum. Kuwait after all recorded a budget surplus (that means extra money) of $52.2 Billion from April to October 2012.”
Read full article: The Collector Tribune – Kuwait Modern Art Museum Collection