In Qatar, an Art Museum of Imposing Simplicity

The new Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I. M. Pei, opens next week in Doha, Qatar.
Nicolai Ouroussoff writes: "Rising on its own island just off the city’s newly developed waterfront corniche, it is the centerpiece of an enormous effort to transform Qatar into an arts destination."
"The inaugural festivities on Saturday, including a performance by Yo-Yo Ma, attracted art-world luminaries from around the globe.
"Viewed under the light of a spectacular evening fireworks display, the museum’s colossal geometric form has an ageless quality, evoking a past when Islamic art and architecture were a nexus of world culture. At the same time it conveys a hope for reconnecting again."
"Mr. Pei visited several proposed sites in downtown Doha before settling on the area just off the end of the seafront corniche.
"Worried that his building might one day be hemmed in by new construction, he asked Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, chairman of the museum’s board, to build him a private island so that his monument would be isolated from the rest of the city."
"The building seems austere by the standards of the flashy attention-grabbing forms that we have come to associate with Persian Gulf cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi."
Mr. Ouroussoff says the museum "recalls a time when architectural expression was both more earnest and more optimistic, and the rift between modernity and tradition had yet to reach full pitch."
"The museum, which houses manuscripts, textiles, ceramics and other works mostly assembled over the last 20 years, has emerged as one of the world’s most encyclopedic collections of Islamic art.
"The origins of its artifacts range from Spain to Egypt to Iran, Iraq, Turkey, India and Central Asia."
“Islam was one religion I did not know,” Mr. Pei said in an interview. “So I studied the life of Muhammad. I went to Egypt and Tunisia. I became very interested in the architecture of defense, in fortifications.”
“The architecture is very strong and simple,” he added. “There is nothing superfluous.”

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/arts/design/24muse.html?_r=1&ref=design