Qatar to Inaugurate the World’s First M.F. Husain Museum on November 28

A landmark moment for South Asian modernism is set for November 28, 2025, when Qatar Foundation opens Lawh Wa Qalam,M.F. Husain Museum at Education City, Doha, the first museum anywhere dedicated to the life, work, and philosophy of Maqbool Fida Husain (1915–2011). The institution will trace six decades of Husain’s prolific practice across painting, film, tapestry, photography, poetry, and large-scale installations.

The museum takes its name from the Arabic phrase “Lawh Wa Qalam” (Canvas and Pen) and is being realized by Qatar Foundation, which supported Husain in his later years and granted him honorary Qatari citizenship in 2010. The building itself is based on an architectural sketch by Husain, making the structure an extension of his artistic vision. Situated in Education City, the museum underscores Qatar’s long-term investment in cultural infrastructure and research-driven arts programming.

What visitors will see

A centerpiece of the experience will be Seeroo fi al ardh, Husain’s final, 20-minute immersive installation chronicling human progress—a work commissioned under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and already a destination within Education City. The galleries will also foreground Husain’s Arab civilization series, begun in Qatar and integral to the artist’s late period, presented through multimedia storytelling that situates his iconography horses, mythology, everyday life within broader cultural dialogues.

Architecture as artwork

Echoing Husain’s modernist boldness, the museum’s blue massing and letter-like apertures referenced in his sketch turn the building into an artwork. This synthesis of art and architecture mirrors Husain’s own cross-disciplinary instincts and extends Education City’s growing constellation of cultural venues.

Why this opening matters

Husain is among the most influential figures of India’s post-Independence avant-garde, a founding member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group whose visual language bridged folklore, faith, and the everyday in vivid, democratic form. As global interest in non-Western modernisms surges and Husain’s market sees new records, the museum arrives at a timely juncture, promising scholarly depth and public access in equal measure.

For the Asian art ecosystem, Lawh Wa Qalam is more than a tribute. It’s a research and convening platform that can re-center South Asian modernism within global narratives, catalyze cross-regional collaborations, and offer audiences (from Doha to Mumbai and beyond) a sustained, nuanced encounter with a towering, sometimes controversial, figure whose practice was always in conversation with the world.

Opening: November 28, 2025 • Location: Education City, Doha • Institution: Qatar Foundation.