Qatar Gets Naming Op at Geffen
LACMA has begun naming the Geffen's core galleries for donors. One name stands out: Qatar. The oil-rich Persian Gulf nation is sponsoring a room of Western U.S. landscapes from Albert Bierstadt and Ansel Adams to Richard Prince and Wendy Red Star ("Picturing the American West"). Qatar has had an official relationship with LACMA since 2019, when LACMA, the Qatar Museums, and the Yuz Museum, Shanghai, announced a deal to collaborate on exhibitions. Last year Qatar made the news when it gave the U.S. a $400 million luxury Boeing 747 for use as Air Force One. This was seen as an especially blatant attempt to curry favor with the Trump administration. Why slap Qatar's name on American art, rather than on one of the Geffen's excellent rooms of Islamic art? I'm left wondering whether the political climate played a role, even at this remove from DC. To the MAGA mindset, Islamic art codes as alien and suspect, while "cowboy art" is OK. If so, the irony is ...
