The Louvre Abu Dhabi

The Louvre Abu Dhabi has announced the acquisitions for its permanent collection and it has done it in the style we have come to expect from the institution it represents, with the exhibition “The Birth of a Museum”, held in the island of Saadiyat, right next to the spot where the museum is being built. The curators of this event have picked 130 of the main works out of the 460 pieces already earmarked for the collection.

Among the wide selection of classical and historical treasures such as the Princess, a central Asian sculpture dating from 2000BC, and western art such as The Gipsy, by Edouard Manet,  and there even are a few suprises, for example the fact that the choice includes the work of contemporary artists like Cy Twombly in a departure from its Paris counterpart where no contemporary art has yet been made part of the permanent collection.

The highly cosmopolitan population of Abu Dhabi amounts to 1,600,000 inhabitants, out of a total of over 4 million inhabitants in the United Arab Emirates. Built on the island of Saadiyat (the Island of Happiness), a natural island with an area of 27 sq km, the Cultural District will host a number of world-renowned cultural establishments: the universal museum of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, whose architectural project is designed by Jean Nouvel, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum designed by Franck Gehry, a Performing Arts Centre designed by Zaha Hadid, a Maritime Museum designed by Tadao Ando, and the Sheikh Zayed National Museum designed by Norman Foster. This Cultural District will form part of a new urban complex with 150,000 inhabitants, located at a short distance from the historic centre of Abu Dhabi.

The museum will have an area of approximately 24,000 square metres, of which 6,000 will be dedicated to the permanent collections and 2,000 to temporary exhibitions. It will consist of an auditorium, an educational, scientific and research resource centre, a children’s museum and state of the art visitor reception and hospitality amenities including a restaurant and a café.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi will also actively promote arts education. A restoration and conservation workshop will be a permanent feature and a lecture cycle will be devoted to exploring the principal acquisitions, understanding their place in the history of art and civilisations and acquiring key landmarks in the history of painting, sculpture and the decorative arts.

 

The Birth of a Museum

April 22 – 20 July 2013 in Abu Dhabi and then at the Louvre Paris in October 2013.

www.louvre.fr/louvre-abou-dabi