Happy Friday!
- Qatar has unveiled ambitious details for its inaugural quadrennial contemporary art exhibition set to coincide with neighboring Frieze Abu Dhabi in November.
- Fallout from the Epstein saga continues with new revelations of ties to SFMOMA.
- A small Michelangelo sketch of a foot just sold for a record $27.2 million.
The Headlines
QATAR’S NEXT MOVE. The first Art Basel Qatar comes to a close Saturday, but the Gulf emirate is already eyeing its next major art event: a new contemporary art quadrennial in Doha called Rubaiya Qatar , strategically timed to coincide with its neighbor’s launch of Frieze Abu Dhabi this November. On Friday, Qatar Museums, the organizers of the quadrennial, revealed new details about the event, which will unfold across the emirate and feature more than 50 artists and new commissions. The largest exhibition, “Unruly Waters,” will be curated by Tom Eccles, Ruba Katrib, Mark Rappolt, and Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, while broader exhibition themes will examine the circulation of people and ideas informed by the ancient Maritime Silk Road, natural geography, and current ecological and geopolitical transformations, according to a press release shared by Art Dependence. Confirmed participating artists include Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Sophia Al Maria, Mohamed Bourouissa, and Lydia Ourahmane, among others. But reporters attending this week’s Art Basel Qatar talk with the country’s most influential collector, Sheikha Al-Mayassa, also learned of another, previously unpublicized exhibition within the quadrennial: a “pavilion” devoted to works byGerhard Richter . “This almost became an unreal project because it was very complicated and complex to realize … but it’s in the making and will open in November,” confirmed Al-Mayassa, who is also chair of Qatar Museums.