Doha is to get a fully fledged art fair with the news that Art Basel Qatar will be launching in Doha next February. It will be the fifth fair to bear the Art Basel name.
Initially the intention is that it should be something of a carefully curated boutique fair, with a target of around 50 exhibiting galleries. By contrast, this year’s Art Dubai had around 120 and last November’s Abu Dhabi Art had significantly increased participation of over 100. Art Basel’s other shows of course are in a different league – Art Basel 2025 (19-22 June) will feature 289 exhibitors from 42 countries, the inaugural Art Basel Paris last November had 195.
Qatar doesn’t have currently have an art fair beyond the exhibitors who take part in the relatively modest (and certainly modestly-priced) Qatar International Art Festival, the seventh edition of which is currently scheduled for Katara Halls on 7-12 December.
But Doha does of course have a very active art ecosystem, with some of the best galleries in the region and no little ambition to develop as a cultural hub. And there’s a lot of development going on in terms of investment in public art and new museum spaces, so the addition of a top-class art fair seems logical.
Art Basel’s parent MCH clearly has a strategy to expand its presence in the region – which has a solid ecosystem including local commercial galleries most of which are doing well, allied to a promising economic future that will see more money looking for a home in art as investments or trophies. “The art scene across the MENA region has undergone exponential growth in recent decades” observed Noah Horowitz, Art Basel CEO (for the present). He also noted that that growing the global art market is core to Art Basel’s mission. According to an ARTnews report last November, Art Basel had been in negotiations to take over the operation Abu Dhabi Art in return for a $20 million investment; that idea has presumably been killed off for now (there probably isn’t room for two Art Basels in the Gulf).
MCH’s most recent financial report (for 2024) showed a return to profitability for the first time since 2016, admittedly at a pretty modest level – CHF 3 million on operating income that increased by 10.3 percent year-on-year to CHF 435.7 million, “supported by growth across all business divisions”. ARTnews says it’s an open secret that Art Basel has been in financial trouble and there’s been pressure for Art Basel’s CEO Noah Horowitz to deliver big deals that could ease the financial pressure on the parent company. Art Basel Qatar fits that bill.
Of course there are no details of how much money is involved. Maybe some clues will emerge when MCH publishes an annual report (it’s a public company, quoted on the Swiss stock exchange and so subject to relatively transparent reporting requirements). But it’s likely that Art Basel and MCH aren’t putting up much if any of the cash for Art Basel Qatar itself. The deal is between Art Basel, its parent company MCH Group, Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), and QC+, a business specialising in ‘cultural commerce’.
Given the background of these organisations, it seems pretty obvious that QSI will be the funder with MCH/Art Basel providing expertise in sales and operations. QSI is a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the country’s sovereign wealth fund – so while QSI operates as a private entity, it is ultimately backed by the Qatari state. As the name suggests, QSI has hitherto been noted for sports-related ventures, including ownership of Paris Saint-Germain (finalists in this year’s UEFA Champions League) and investments in other sports either direct through ownership or indirectly through sponsorships. It’s also the principal investor in Qatar’s Aspire Zone, which houses academies, training facilities, and venues for various sports. QSI does have investments in other sectors, like real estate, hospitality and film and TV production; but we think this is its first foray into arts and culture.
The role of QC+ – more formally, QC Enterprises WLL – is less immediately obvious. It used to be called IN-Q Enterprises and is the commercial arm (and a wholly owned subsidiary) of Qatar Museums; its promo material talks about “driving engagement and economic opportunity through strategic storytelling, immersive experiences, product development, and more … By blending traditional heritage with innovative strategies, we empower cultural institutions to unlock the revenue potential of their assets … We position culture as a catalyst for education, dialogue, and global connection, while opening pathways to revenue streams across tourism, hospitality, retail, and collaborative ventures”.
So it’s in the business of finding way to realise value from culture, which sort of fits with Art Basel’s own remit. Maybe the role of QC+ will be to develop an Art Basel Qatar ecosystem beyond the art fair itself.
Certainly the press release talks about developing “year-round touchpoints both in Qatar and across Art Basel’s global platform … Through educational programming and market development strategies, public arts engagement and more, Art Basel Qatar will holistically weave into the fabric of Qatar and further catalyse a growing collector and gallery network”. So maybe that kind of outreach is the role for QC+.
The arrival of a prestigious art fair makes sense as a contributor to the development of the country’s artistic heft. Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chair of Qatar Museums talked about welcoming the Art Basel organisation as a partner “to further elevate Qatar’s initiatives to support the creative industries of our region”.
She also included a justification for QSI’s involvement into her comments: “When we welcomed the world to Hamad International Airport for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the power of merging culture with sports could not have been more evident”. For the World Cup Qatar Museums installed over 100 public art pieces around Doha, including works by Olafur Eliasson, KAWS, Rashid Johnson, Katharina Fritsch, Simone Fattal, Ernesto Neto, Richard Serra, Damien Hirst, and Yayoi Kusama.
Indeed, the Qatari state and the Al Thani family were pioneers in the Gulf when it comes to buying contemporary art, thanks largely to Sheikha Al Mayassa (who is the current emir’s sister). In fact, from the start of the millennium she has been commissioning big-name artists for public art projects and internationally known architects for Qatar’s museums. Sheikha Al Mayassa has obviously been a prime mover in the Art Basel Qatar project, too. She told the Financial Times: “this isn’t the first time that an art fair has come to us, but I didn’t feel the time was right until now.
The inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar will be held in the M7 creative hub (“Qatar’s epicentre for innovation and entrepreneurship in fashion and design”) in the Doha Design District, downtown Msheireb – handy for art landmarks including Jean Nouvel’s lovely National Museum of Qatar, the Al Riwaq and Fire Station galleries, the IM Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art, and the forthcoming Art Mill complex. It’s likely that exhibitors at Art Basel Qatar will find a ready market in those museums, but the implication is that all the partners are keen to find longer-term benefits. Noah Horowitz, chief executive of Art Basel, said the Qatar fair would be “a breath of fresh air” in “a period of [art market] recalibration”.
The whole arrangement is described as a one-of-a-kind partnership, a phrase which isn’t amplified in the press statement. Andrea Zappia, MCH’s chairman and Group CEO, characterised Art Basel Qatar as “a groundbreaking project based on the unity of intent of ambitious organisations” and said: “we believe we will build something completely new that will attract art buyers and fans from the region and all over the world”. Surely that implies their ambitions go beyond simply replicating Art Basel Paris or Hong Kong – let’s hope for something that is more than a novel partnership arrangement, something that is indeed “completely new” in terms of art as well as commerce.
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