|
|
This page introduces some supplemental resources on the Arabic language and culture to bridge calligraphy as art with Arabic and contextualize it. |
 |
|
Contact: |
The Arab World: Heritage & Civilization |
Arabic Calligraffiti |
Book Selections |
The Arabic Alphabet by
Ever larger numbers of people are starting to learn Arabic, while even more have some contact with the Arab world. Anyone who wishes to learn the language faces a hitherto formidable initial problem: the alphabet. This book proceeds step by step through all the letters of the Arabic alphabet, showing the sounds they stand for and how they are combined into words. Nothing essential is left out, but no unnecessary complications are added. Readers will find that progress is rapid and will be surprised at the relative ease with which they master the first steps in learning this increasingly important world language. The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read and Write It belongs on the desk of every student of the language, in the luggage of every visitor to the Middle East, in the briefcase of all business people with Arab clients, and in the back pocket of all employees of British or American companies working for a time in an Arab country.
Arabic Graffiti by
Arab Graffiti is an extensive and valuable reference that showcases the use of Arabic script in a contemporary, urban context. It brings together artists, graffiti writers, designers and typographers from the Middle East and around the world who merge Arabic calligraphy with the art of graffiti writing, street art and urban culture. Also includes essays by distinguished authors and scene experts that explore the traditional elements, modern approaches and the socio-political and cultural backgrounds which have shaped Arabic graffiti movements.
Arabic Hurufiyya by
Arab Hurufiya: Art and Identity is a book, which recollects the history of a modern art movement in the Arab world, called "Hurufiya". Re-inventing calligraphy, and focusing on the formal elements of the Arabic letter, it is one of the most significant art movements that took place in the Arab world beginning in the 14th century, and peaking again in mid-twentieth century. This movement fuses the traditional and the contemporary, the letter and the sign, in a way that the letter is perceived as an artistic form and does not require to be read or decrypted. Written by Dr. Charbel Dagher in 1991, this is the first time that these texts are published in English, and are accessible to a non-Arabic speaking audience.
Arabic Tattoos by
It's no secret that tattoos have become a commonly accepted and popular form of self-expression; people young and old wear sleeves of ink and florid designs peek out from waistband and shirt collars. Over the past few years, however, a new genre of tattoos has emerged: Arabic tattoos. Although Islam prohibits tattooing, Arabic Tattoos documents the reasons why people from the United States and Europe get these tattoos, ranging from names converted from Latin alphabets to Arabic, to bold words like "infidel" emblazoned on US soldiers returning to Iraq. Jon Udelson, the book's compiler, writes, "These tattoos signify more than the words and designs they showcase upon a person's skin. They are representative of the this crucial point in modern time where cultural awareness, acceptance, and, unfortunately, fear, are salient aspects of global culture." Along with the photographs of these tattoos and the stories from their recipients, designers and inkers, essays from tattoo expert Clayton Patterson and Egyptian artist Hamdi Attia provide a thoughtful context for these tattoos. The purpose of Arabic Tattoos is to illuminate questions like "To whom does a language belong?" and in doing so add to an ever expanding public discourse that involves philosophy, religion, politics and art, arriving at a higher understanding of this multi-cultural world in which we live.
Muthanna / Mirror Writing in Islamic Calligraphy by
Muthanna, also known as mirror writing, is a compelling style of Islamic calligraphy composed of a source text and its mirror image placed symmetrically on a horizontal or vertical axis. This style elaborates on various scripts such as Kufic, naskh, and muhaqqaq through compositional arrangements, including doubling, superimposing, and stacking. Muthanna is found in diverse media, ranging from architecture, textiles, and tiles to paper, metalwork, and woodwork. Yet despite its centuries-old history and popularity in countries from Iran to Spain, scholarship on the form has remained limited and flawed. Muthanna / Mirror Writing in Islamic Calligraphyprovides a comprehensive study of the text and its forms, beginning with an explanation of the visual principles and techniques used in its creation. Author Esra Akin-Kivanc explores muthanna's relationship to similar forms of writing in Judaic and Christian contexts, as well as the specifically Islamic contexts within which symmetrically mirrored compositions reached full fruition, were assigned new meanings, and transformed into more complex visual forms. Throughout, Akin-Kivanc imaginatively plays on the implicit relationship between subject and object in muthanna by examining the point of view of the artist, the viewer, and the work of art. In doing so, this study elaborates on the vital links between outward form and inner meaning in Islamic calligraphy.
Signs of Our Times by
Signs of Our Times: From Calligraphy to Calligraffiti covers six decades of an art trend led by artists from the Arab world and Iran. Starting in the early 1950s, this alternative and original approach to modernism began with artists who took inspiration from their own cultural sources and combined them with international aesthetics and concepts. This publication considers the work of 50 key artists, ranging from important pioneers of the calligraphic movement to those who use the written word in their work today. The book begins with a contribution from Venetia Porter, curator of Islamic and contemporary Middle Eastern art at the British Museum, who provides a historical contextualization of the movement and its relationship to lettrism in Europe. In a second essay, the writer and curator Rose Issa presents an overview of 60 years of the art movement in Arab countries and Iran, from the independences of the late 1940s and 1950s to the present day. A timeline by Juliet Cestar, an expert on contemporary Middle Eastern art, then sets out major cultural and historical events in the Middle East over the course of the last 60 years. The main part of the book is divided into three sections, each devoted to a different generation of artists: the first generation of pioneers, who created a new aesthetic language following the independence of their countries; the second generation of artists, who mostly live in exile and who reference their own cultures and languages in their work; and the third generation, comprising contemporary artists who have absorbed international aesthetics, concepts and languages and who occasionally use Arabic and Persian script, or the morphology of letters, in their work. The entry for each artist includes a concise biography and a statement from the artist about their work. The artworks, in a variety of media, are also interspersed with poems and relevant literature, putting into personal and historical contexts the innovative use of words in art.
Talking about Arabic by
Mourad Boutros, author of Arabic for Designers, enlists his professional peers to examine the global context for Arabic design and typography. The thematic thread that runs through every article, case study and illustration in Talking About Arabic is how technological advances have furthered, and changed, the use of Arabic throughout the world, whether in print or online. Detailed accounts of how advances in font technology have permitted digitized Arabic to accurately represent the Arabic calligraphic tradition provides a discourse for non-Arabic speakers to consider the language's cultural, religious and aesthetic issues in a 21st century context, including teaching Arabic in a global context, the development of contemporary Arabic fonts and multilingual Web design.
