Worthy of the Book They Honor

By Holland Cotter, "Copying the Koran, One Book at a Time " - The New York Times - New York, NY, USA
Thursday, October 9, 2008

“Say it!” the angel Gabriel commanded Muhammad, who had been chosen to channel the message of Allah to mankind.

“Write it,” the angel might have said, because the words the prophet recited became a book, the Koran. And in the hands of artists over the centuries that book became a devotional object of surpassing beauty.

The art of the book and the art of writing are the subjects of paired exhibitions at Asia Society, “Traces of the Calligrapher: Islamic Calligraphy in Practice, Circa 1600-1900” and “Writing the Word of God: Calligraphy and the Qur’an.” Perfect in size and proportion, carefully thought out and gorgeous, they are worthy of the book they honor.

Gorgeous is important. Precious jewels should be superbly cut and set. Many would say that the word of God is the most precious jewel of all. “Traces of the Calligrapher” is about how that word was packaged for earthly consumption. Basically, the show is a manual of fine handwriting and luxury bookmaking, illustrated by superb examples of tools of the trade and finished products.

No tool was more essential than the ink pen. From the time the first Korans were written in the seventh century, a traditional kind of pen was preferred, one made of a plain, dried, hollow reed, cut at the end to form a nib. Yet when it came to the holy book, nothing was ever really plain. Every aspect of its production took on symbolic weight.

The pen was an emblem for the creation of the cosmos, when primal matter issued forth from God like ink on a page. Its use had ethical implications. The skill with which a calligrapher trimmed the nib — ideally with a single, deft knife stroke — was assumed to say everything about his force of character.

Calligraphers were not regarded as ordinary artisans. They were members of a subculture with its own set of aesthetic codes and foundation myths and often with strong connections to Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam still too little understood in the West.

Exalted as it was, the pen came with sumptuous accoutrements. Knives used to trim it were fitted with ivory, agate or coral handles. Small flat objects, called maktas, originally bits of stone on which the pen rested when cut, were transformed into miniature sculptures of walrus tusk and gold.

Parchment was used for early Korans. Then paper became common and inspired yet another line of ornate and ingenious instruments, evident in the show.

Scissors from 18th-century Iran fold into a sleek, compact dart shape, rounded at the top and pierced with pinpoint fine openwork patterns. The finger holes of a large pair of scissors made in Ottoman Turkey form calligraphic characters that spell out one of the names of God. With every slice, the idea is, you say a prayer.

Over time, an entire industry of calligraphic accessories flourished, from pen-cases and ink wells inlaid with tortoise shell, ebony and mother-of-pearl to an Ikea's worth of specialized furniture, including calligrapher’s tables as ornate as altars.

Most sensuous of all were book covers of tooled and gilded leather, or painted and lacquered pasteboard. Many Koran covers had abstract decorations, but on one Iranian example roses and tulips palpitate against a hot-red ground as if drawing vitality from the writing they enclosed and protected.

Writing — the written word — was the essential thing. If “Traces of the Calligrapher,” organized by Mary McWilliams and David J. Roxburgh of Harvard University, is primarily an ensemble of the instruments that produced it, the show also evokes calligraphy as a physical act.

A film of the American-born master calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya at work is a mesmerizing part of the show. So are the wall texts that describe stages of calligraphic training. Hands-on study entails the preparation of materials and the mastery of pen techniques.

But it begins with a prolonged contemplation of existing calligraphy, a total immersion in the written word, which means keeping it in front of your eye, living with it, absorbing its particular pulses and energies before attempting to send your own version out into the world.

The second and smaller of the two shows, “Writing the Word of God: Calligraphy and the Qur’an,” affords something like this experience. It is a deep-end dive into writing and its history.

Two parchment sheets, their edges nibbled away by time, date to the seventh century, when Islam was new. The words that crowd every inch of surface might even have been copied during the prophet’s lifetime. At that early date, though, the word of Allah was customarily presented as Muhammad had presented it: orally. The manuscript at Asia Society was probably a kind of prompt-book for recitations.

But very quickly, copies of the Koran became primary objects, esteemed for their beauty as well as their content. Stretched-out Arabic letters on a single surviving page from an eighth century Koran have the stop-start rhythms of a music score. And on a page from a different copy the same script appears in gold on a rich midnight-blue ground.

Expressive new script styles developed: Eastern Kufic with characters tall, thin and slightly flexed like blades of grass in a field; Maghribi from North Africa, with its flourishes of downward lines, like roots reaching into desert subsoil.

Ornament entered the picture: red and green accent marks; verse markers in the form of fat gold knots; and in a 15th- or 16th-century page, a teardrop-shaped medallion, ripe and showy, floating in the margin. And the later books bring us back around to secular examples of calligraphy in the first show.

In an early 17th-century composition, the strokes forming the letters of a poem about a celestial garden are filled with tiny birds and flowers. An imperial degree ordering that generous wages be paid to an artist is topped by what looks like a Christmas tree.

And a third sheet refers to just such an artist in the making. It is a calligraphy student’s graduation certificate, with writing in different sizes and scripts, by the student himself. His work looks more than confident; his teachers have signed off on it; clearly, he is ready to start a career. Just for luck, though, he adds a prayer:

“O Lord, make things easy and do not make them difficult.
Make everything come out well.”

“Traces of the Calligrapher: Islamic Calligraphy in Practice, Circa 1600-1900” and “Writing the Word of God: Calligraphy and the Qur’an” continue through Feb. 8 at Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street, New York, NY; (212) 288-6400.


[See the slide show: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/10/arts/1010-TRAC_index.html]

[Visit the Asia Society and Harvard University]

A version of this article appeared in print on October 10, 2008, on page C29 of the New York edition.

[Picture: calligraphy from Iran dated 1603-4. Photo: Museum of Fine arts, Houston, TX].

The Art of Writing

By Johannes Hillje, "Traditional art in a modern style" - Hürriyet Daily News - Turkey
Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The Rezan Has Museum opens a new exhibition today by well-known calligrapher Etem Çalışkan, an artist famous for rewriting the Nutuk, a 36-hour speech Atatürk delivered in 1927.

The exhibit includes 15 poems and 10 quotes from relevant historical figuresA new exhibition of work by the famous Turkish calligraphy artist Etem Çalışkan debuts today at Istanbul’s Rezan Has Museum at Kadir Has University.

The pieces will include visual interpretations of "the most beautiful poems by Istanbul’s most important poets," Çalışkan told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

The Istanbul-based artist put verses by well-known Turkish poets, including Yayha Kemal Beyahtl, Nazım Hikmet and Talat Sait Halman, on paper in his unique writing style. The exhibit includes 15 poems and 10 quotes from relevant historical figures such as the Sufi mystic Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi.

Çalışkan, 81, became famous for rewriting the Nutuk, the 36-hour speech Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave in 1927 at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

The work on the Nutuk, which covers the events between the start of the Turkish War of Independence in 1919 and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, fills 900 pages and took Çalışkan about two years to complete.

It was published by the Turkish Ministry of Culture in 2000 and is displayed, in 17 books, at the Atatürk Museum in Ankara.

Major works
Two other major works that Çalışkan has illustrated are a Turkish translation of the Koran and a book by Sufi mystic Yunus Emre, making him the only person to ever rewrite all three important books. "I don’t think anyone else will ever do this again," he said.

Çalışkan was also hired to decorate Atatürk’s mausoleum in Ankara with sayings uttered by the founder of the Turkish Republic.

Çalışkan’s passion for calligraphy began during his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, now part of Mimar Sinan University. He learned the art of writing from Emin Barin, an important calligrapher in the first half of the 20th century. After graduating in 1956, Çalışkan worked for various newspapers, including Yeni Sabah, Milliyet and Hürriyet.

Sales of Hürriyet skyrocketed the day Çalışkan’s version of Atatürk’s Gençliğe Hitabe, a speech addressing Turkish youth, was published.

His large portraits of Atatürk were printed in many newspapers and became very famous.

Today, Çalışkan is one of the only Turkish calligraphers writing in Latin letters. "People always connect calligraphy to Arabic letters and religion," he said. "If I wrote in Arabic, I would be rich by now."

He hopes Turks will learn that calligraphy can be also done in Latin letters and develop the art further. "Calligraphy is related to our culture; it was popular in the past, when paintings were forbidden," he said.

Calligraphers now face the challenge of preserving the art of writing, which was the main artistic discipline during the Ottoman Empire. "Nowadays, people prefer to write with computers, but computers cannot dream and create something new, because they don’t have a brain," he said.

Çalışkan thinks that schools should start teaching handwriting again. He is proud of his sole student, Seval Özcan, a young artist who shapes mirrors in calligraphy style. Çalışkan was also invited to a calligraphy symposium at Eskişehir University, which he says shows that young people are still interested in the art.

The new exhibition at Rezan Has Museum is the fifth collaboration between the artist and Kadir Has University.

The poetry-related works displayed in the exhibit are the start of a project Çalışkan is working on for Istanbul’s term as the European Capital of Culture in 2010.

[Picture from the Rezan Has Museum website. Visit the Rezan Has Museum in Istanbul http://www.rhm.org.tr/en/index.php].

Eloquence and Calligraphy

TT Art Desk, "Historical manuscript bearing Imam Ali’s devotions published in Iran" - Tehran Times - Tehran, Iran
Saturday, July 26, 2008

A book carrying devotions attributed to Imam Ali (AS) was published by the Astan-e Qods Razavi Center for Artistic Creations last week.

An addition of the historical book, which has been calligraphed by Master Mir Ali Heravi in 1533 CE, was unveiled during a ceremony at the Imam Ali (AS) Religious Arts Museum in Tehran on Thursday.

The original version of the book, which is also known as “Heravi Devotions”, is keep at the Astan-e Qods Razavi Museum and Library in Mashhad.

Master Gholam-Hossein Amirkhani, who has done the calligraphy for the book’s preface, and Mohammad Jafar Yahaqqi, professor of the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad who has written the preface, some officials from Astan-e Qods Museum, and a number of Iranian cultural figures attended the ceremony.

“This is the first time a book from a manuscript in the museum has been published by Astan-e Qods Razavi Center for Artistic Creations,” Hossein Abedi a member of Astan-e Qods Museum board of directors said.

In the future, according to Abedi, the center plans to publish three versions of the Holy Quran written by Safavid-era calligrapher Alireza Abbasi, a selection of verses from the Holy Quran with calligraphy by Ibrahim Sultan (1394–1435), and the Divan of Hafez written by the 18-century calligrapher Abdolmajid Taleqani.

“‘Heravi Devotions’ is a complex of arts,” Yahaqqi said. “The eloquence of Imam Ali’s words and nastaliq calligraphy of an artist like Mir Ali Heravi have turned the book into one of world’s most valuable manuscripts,” he added.

The ceremony went on with a film clip depicting the printing process of the book. Afterward Amirkhani criticized the Astan-e Qods Museum and Library for not providing public access to manuscripts kept the museum and library.

“The museum has restricted public access to its treasury for years. Publishing the precious manuscripts is a cultural action that should have been carried out long ago,” he noted.

“Heravi was an artist, who was the epitomy of Persian calligraphy who distanced himself ahead of other forerunners of the art,” Amirkhani explained.

“Although Heravi wrote the book when he was a tyro, the calligraphy of the book well illustrates the novelty of his art,” he added. Two editions of the book were presented to Amirkhani and Yahaqqi during the ceremony.

[Photo: Master Gholam-Hossein Amirkhani holds an edition of a book carrying devotions attributed to Imam Ali (AS) during a ceremony at the Imam Ali (AS) Religious Arts Museum in Tehran on July 24. The original version of the book has been calligraphed by Master Mir Ali Heravi in 1533 CE. (Mehr/Majid Asgaripur)].

A Sufi by Inclination

By Ahmed Darwish, "'Enlightened by sight'" - Al-Ahram Weekly - Cairo, Egypt
9 - 15 April 2009 / Issue No. 942

Ahmed Darwish reviews the life of one of Egypt's most distinguished calligraphers

Khan Al-Maghrabi in Zamalek has put together an exhibition of the work of calligrapher Hamed El-Uweidi to mark the anniversary of his death last year at the age of 53. The exhibition, entitled "Love and Salute", drew crowds of art enthusiasts and calligraphy buffs.

Calligraphy may seem to be a luxury, as it requires a skill and takes too much time, especially at a time when most of us spend our days hunched over a keyboard, the nostalgia for beautiful writing is hard to resist.

I first met El-Uweidi at an exhibition of his work at the Higher Council for Culture (HCC). The exhibition was arranged for the 20th anniversary of the death of the poet Amal Dunqul, and the event was sponsored entirely by Gaber Asfour, then secretary-general of the HCC and an old friend of Dunqul's. At the Khan Al-Maghrabi, I felt that time had only added to the inspiration of his message.

Looking at El-Uweidi's work, one is gripped by a persistent sense of wonder. Most of the pieces fuse old and new approaches, since El-Uweidi remains faithful to the legacy of centuries past while experimenting with new approaches with the same freshness found in such works as those of Youssef Sayeda, Kamal El-Sarrag and Naga El-Mahdawi.

Poetry is his favourite theme. "If enamoured, it's because our faces are enlightened by sight." One of his pieces offers the line with such a melodic tenderness that one can almost hear it.
What sets El-Uweidi apart from other calligraphers is that he uses the background of his compositions as a basic component of the piece. It is as if one is prepared for the opus with a chorus of whispers, or perhaps eased into the melee with a nudge on the shoulder. Then an oversized letter, his trademark, brings the message home on a dramatic note, one that pushes the delicate harmony of the inimitable composition out of this world and into another level of visual expression altogether.

In another piece, he presents a fragment of poetry: "He who says no to the face of he who said yes, and teaches man to tear apart the emptiness, he who says no doesn't die, but becomes a soul in pain immortalised." He is using a three dimensional pattern here, offering Persian script interlaced with another script called Thuluth, the word "no" blown out of proportion, offering the canvass an audio quality of immense impact.

In all El-Uweidi's compositions there is a yearning for spirituality, a supplication to a higher power, a quest for a spiritual journey that takes him to the poetry of Ahmed Shawqi and Mahmoud Darwish and the sayings of Ibn Arabi and Omar Khayyam.

El-Uweidi, who held the post of art director at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic studies, was a Sufi by inclination, a poet by temperament, and a man of encyclopaedic knowledge. A keen collector of rare Quran recitals, he would spend hours listening to the great Quranic readers Mustafa Ismail and Mohamed Siddiq El-Minshawi.

He was close to his family, and used to spend most of his time at home either reading or talking to his daughter, Aida, who was 10 when he died. He was also a frequent visitor of old mosques, his favourite being the Sultan Hassan Mosque, a great place for admiring the fine examples of Mameluke calligraphy. El-Uweidi used to take his son Salah to mosques in Islamic Cairo, usually opting for the mosques with the best examples of calligraphy.

El-Uweidi owned a large collection of art, Sufi literature, and poetry, and had plans to write the whole Quran in calligraphy, but died before he could fulfil his wish. He died on 4 March 2008 and was buried in Qus village in Upper Egypt.

Picture: El-Uweidi adding the final touches to one of his calligraphy masterpieces in Al-Ahram office [click to enlarge]. Photo: Al-Ahram

The Beginning of Everything

By Arsalan Mohammad, "Rhythm of Language" - The National - Abu Dhabi, UAE
Sunday, August 10, 2008

It all starts with a dot.

“The dot is very important,” says Khaled al Saai, as he reaches for a fresh sheet of paper, dips a wooden blade into a pot of ink and swiftly marks a small neat square in the centre of the white page.

“This is the beginning of everything, the dot. It measures the letters geometrically. It gives identity to each letter.”

More dots appear on the sheet as Saai begins working with fluency. “It refers to Kaaba, when you look from above, the dot is rectangular. When it is rounded, it is the movement around the Kaaba, the dot itself between the two stages – no movement and the ultimate movement – between the calmness and movement. Classically, each style has its own dot.”

The 38-year-old, Syrian-born calligrapher is well-versed in classic calligraphy styles – as his reputation attests, he is one of the few young Arab artists who have transcended regional boundaries to achieve real international fame.

He has exhibited in both solo and group shows around the world, from Sharjah to Mexico and Boston to Bonn. He has been feted by major calligraphy events in Istanbul, Sharjah and Iran, as well as smaller arts festivals in Europe, often picking up first prize in biennial competitions, and beating down the cream of the region’s calligraphers.

Major wins over the past decade include four first prizes for Diwani Jali calligraphy at his alma mater, the prestigious in Istanbul Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), as well as a glut of prizes from Sharjah Calligraphy Biennials.

It’s his highly distinct style that immediately arrests the attention. It’s a perfect synthesis of old and new, spiritual and earthy. In his varied canvases – some pocket-sized, others stretching across gallery walls – he diffuses traditional techniques through a contemporary prism, deconstructs strictly-executed calligraphic styles within vast landscapes.

The results can reference Quranic verses, secular poetry or more simply, clusters of random letters into pictorial forms that thunder across the surfaces of his canvases.

(...)

Blending the cleaner, sharper lines of Thuluth with the opulence of Diwani Jali brings us closer to the trademark Saai style. But again, Saai’s love of experimentation emerges through his choice of media.

The usual ink and tempera and range of graduated wooden blades of any calligrapher is present and correct, yet there are inks made from substances like tobacco and crushed walnuts, which add extra texture and depth to his work.

“I have no direct influences,” he remarks. “I know all the Iranian artists, but I don’t have any Parsi style in my work. Usually, I work with a theme, I have everything I am doing translated to Arabic and try to convey the rhythm of the language in the visual art and that is a challenge.”

Citing favourites such as the late Lebanese painter Paul Guragossian and Syrian contemporary art legend Fateh Moudarres, Saai says he prefers to draw inspiration from his surroundings.

Porter [*] makes tentative comparisons to the Iraqi painter Hassan Massoudy, also featured in Word Into Art, but points out that Massoudy’s technique uses words with a much more straightforward approach.

Saai’s best pieces reflect his love of music. He recently staged a performance piece with a Jordanian musician, Khaled Jaramani, in which he responded visually to the lutist’s performance by echoing the music in his strokes as he painted words from a Sufi poem by Taher Riadh.

“I try to convey the rhythm of language in visual art and that is a challenge, there is a very deep dialogue between these two arts. Music complements the calligraphy.”

(...)

Khaled al Saai’s work can currently be seen at the XVA Gallery in Dubai (04 04 353 5383), the Majlis Gallery in Dubai (04 3536233) and the Green Art Gallery in Dubai (04 344 9888).

*[Venetia Porter, the assistant keeper of Islamic and contemporary Middle Eastern art at the British Museum in London, who included Saai in her recent Word Into Art exhibition in London and Dubai].

“Dot”

By Asli Saglam, "Zaim promotes Turkish art via his films" - Turkish Daily News - Ankara, Turkey
Saturday, October 18, 2008

Antalya: Derviş Zaim says traditional Turkish art inspires his cinematic productions, many of which have earned awards. This year he brings Turkish calligraphy to the silver screen and his film “Dot” to the 45th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.

Zaim won the prestigious "Yunus Nadi" literary prize in Turkey with his first novel “Ares in Wonderland” in 1995. A year later, Zaim made an auspicious debut as a feature film director and screenwriter with his film “Somersault in a Coffin,” which received the Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Editing awards at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in 1996.

The film also won several prizes at international film festivals, bringing Zaim critical acclaim as a first time director. He repeated his success with his next feature film, “Elephants and Grass,” and then again with “Mud,” which ran in the Counter Currents category of the Venice Film Festival and won the UNESCO Award.

Zaim also shot a documentary titled “Parallel Trips” in 2004 before he started work on a film trilogy. “Waiting for Heaven” was the first in the trilogy, followed by “Dot,” which is currently competing in the National Feature Film Competition at the 45th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.

Zaim wants to create a different cinema and approach to film. “Turkish culture and history contains interesting motivations within its art. In ‘Waiting for Heaven,' I incorporated traditional miniature painting into the film. The people who watch ‘Dot' will see the art of calligraphy,” said Zaim. “The last film of the trilogy will exploit porcelain and ceramic tile.”

Zaim, who always adds a social dimension to his films, believes that cheap optimism can get people down. “The leading character of Ahmet, played by Mehmet Ali Nuroğlu, aims to be forgiven after facing unfortunate circumstances. Films don't have to have happy endings," said Zaim.

The action starts with a character named Ahmet, a calligraphy artist who decides to help his friend Selim sell a rare and invaluable 13th century Koran owned by his family. However, this decision pushes him into unwanted and unfamiliar territory. The film advances along a trajectory of crime and punishment and organically incorporates the traditional art form of calligraphy.

After Ahmet contacts the local mafia, they kidnap Selim and request the Koran as ransom from Selim's father, leaving Ahmet feeling guilty. After the dust from the shady affair settles, both Selim and the gangsters are dead. Ahmet then tries to track down Selim's family to ask for forgiveness.

The film was shot at Salt Lake, the second largest lake in Turkey and the source of the local salt market.

“The emptiness was a new thing for me. The passage of time shown through filming the connection between the sky and the salt brings a new inspiration to Turkish cinema,” said Zaim, who emphasized that Salt Lake was like an empty piece of paper for him.

Zaim also draws connections between the danger faced by Salt Lake from industrial pollution and the illegitimate use of water, and the danger faced by Ahmet due to his illegal activities.

After reading a lot of history, art, Sufism and philosophy, Zaim shot the movie in 12 days. “I cannot copy and paste the ideas of the thinkers, I want everyone to understand my films. A butcher, a driver and a man in the street should understand the film. What I want to do is to send a clear message,” said Zaim.

Noting his interest in Turkish art started at the same time he was thinking about the creation of distinctive and unique cinema, Zaim said, “I benefit from Turkish culture in generating ideas for my films.”

”Dot” will be one of five films competing at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards on Nov. 11 in Australia.

Who is Derviş Zaim?
Derviş Zaim was born in 1964 in Famagusta, North Cyprus. He graduated from the Economic and Administrative Sciences Department at Bosphorus University in 1988 and also holds a graduate degree in Cultural Studies from the University of Warwick, England. He began work in film in 1991 with the experimental video, “Hang the Camera,” followed by the TV documentary, “Rock Around the Mosque.” Between 1992 and 1995 he worked as a television writer and producer, and directed numerous television shows. “Somersault in a Coffin” was his first feature film.

The Presence of the Arab Letter

[From the French language press]:

Nous remarquons que dans vos écritures, il y a un dialogue, un brassage de cultures…
En effet, un dialogue entre les civilisations orientales, mésopotamienne, phénicienne et arabo-musulmane…

J’aime que toutes mes écritures seront tirées de l’œuvre de Tawhidi, ce grand penseur arabo-perse.

El Watan, Algérie - mardi 22 mai 2007 - par C. Berriah

We notice that in your calligraphies there is a dialogue, a mixing of cultures…
Indeed, a dialogue between Eastern civilizations, Mesopotamian, Phenician and Muslim-Arabic…
I like that all my calligraphies are drawn from the work of Tawhidi, this great Arabic-Persian thinker.

Algerian artist Yazid Kheloufi (b. 1963), who will soon exhibit in Paris, interviewed by C. Berriah for Algerian Daily El Watan about his materic art and his relationship to calligraphy and sufism.

It is not a secret that your works feel mysticism?!
Certainly not, as you know, my painting is based on the great sufi repertory and the illuminative philosophy which was founded by famous Chihab Eddine Al Suhrawardi.

It is true that you cannot do without calligraphy?
For me, Islamic calligraphy remains an interior topography of oneself. The presence of the Arab letter is very strong in the imaginary of a Muslim, much more than the image.

I give you an example: the image cannot serve the divine message, whereas the letter is abstract and the divine one is abstract. Allah, the name of God in Islam, cannot be represented in image, whereas the letter and the alphabet can serve the divine one…

[picture: voyage d'amour et de mort (journey of love and death), calligraphy on textile, cm 80 x 400 (31" x 157") http://www.artmajeur.com/yazid/]

[About Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d. ah 414/ce 1023 visit http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H046]

On a Ride to Another World

By Shoeb Khan, "An affair with Sufiana art" - The Times of India - India
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Sufi message of peace and harmony is being propagated through an exhibition of paintings called 'Sufi art exhibition' organized by Salman Chishti, a Sufi Scholar and a curator of art paintings

He is displaying his collection of 100 paintings on handmade khadi paper at the Chishti Manzil here.

The theme of exhibition revolves around calligraphy and paintings depicting Sufi values.

At the exhibition, the Sufi paintings of Najmul Hasan Chishti, a khadim of the Khwaja and a calligraphy artist. The unique feature of this exhibition is the representation of the saying of Sufis in calligraphy, along with its meaning illustrated through a painting in the background.

The principal essence of Najmul's works is portraying life in 'Sufi Islam' and especially on 'Sama, a form of mediation, widely practiced by the Sufi 'dervish'.

One can observe Rumi poetry in many of his paintings. He had beautifully portrayed the whirling 'dervishes' in ecstasy.

The most prominent painting of an artist has been named 'Vajd', the meditating 'dervish', this painting captivates the mood of a 'dervish', swathed in a multi-coloured clock, although their eyes are open by their gaze, it is directed inward away from the world.

Another painting which is receiving appreciation is depiction of 'Basant' on the verses of Amir Khusrau, the famous Sufi poet of thirteenth century. The painting portrays 'dervishes' traveling to the shrine on Basant clad to offer garlands of yellow flowers while singing Qawwalis.

The paintings appear to be miniatures at first sight, but a closer look reveals the artist's beautiful use of watercolors. Artist Najmul began his affair with brush and paint years back when he was a student of fine arts. His deep love and faith in Sufi values helps him in coming up with ideas.

Salman, the organizer of the exhibition, have successfully created a Sufi ambiance at the venue of exhibition. The art lovers can be seen lost in themselves, when they encountered with the aroma of scented incense and in a background the Turkish Sufi music takes them on a ride to
another world.

"The objective of this exhibition is to encourage the dying art of calligraphy as well as to revive the tenets of Sufism, that preaches universal brotherhood," said Salman.

The exhibition, which was inaugurated on Saturday morning and will continue till July 14, is attracting a lot of attention from the devotees coming to the dargah to participate in the 796th annual Urs.

Apparently exhilarated by the paintings, Fahim Hussain from Mumbai said, "It's a soothing experience, which will take you to a different world".

Puran Jinchi: Islamic Art with a Sufi logic in Dubai

"Call of prayer" by Raziqueh Hussain in the Khaleej Times Online

19 February 2010

Iranian artist Pouran Jinchi’s art attempts to capture the act of prayer on paper

Prayer has always been the foundation of every faith in the world. Imagine sitting in a room full of people praying and the feeling that you get is calm, peaceful, reassuring and sometimes, overwhelming. One gets the same feelings when looking at ‘Ritual Imprints’, an exhibition at the Third Line gallery (Dubai), on show till February 25.

White calligraphic marks and yellow accents of concentric circles float down over a black canvas; lyrical lines form a field of blue crescents hovering over atmospheric white; abstractions of Farsi letters cluster in circles and form dark lines which loop across a blonde surface. These are Pouran Jinchi’s paintings.

A contemporary artist born in Mashad, Iran, educated in the United States and residing in New York, Jinchi borrows from her home culture’s traditions of literature and calligraphy, and more broadly from the entire history of painting, to pursue her own aesthetic investigations. Trained as a calligrapher in Mashad, the holiest city in Iran, which is home to the shrine of the 8th Imam Ali Raza, Jinchi’s work incorporates traditional aspects of her culture and the beauty of calligraphy.

Her paintings are divided into four series aptly called Dawn, Morning, Noon and Night, signifying the time of prayer. The paintings progress from misty and chalky white in the Dawn collection to deep black and silver hues in the final collection.

The delicately crafted drawings of patterned textures and traditional calligraphy with Islamic geometric design detail the implications of prayer and ritual. The circles and rectangles are decorated with the word ‘Allah’ and inscribed as well as prayers for peace directed to Ali ibne Musa Raza, the eighth apostle in the Shia line of spiritual succession.

“What would you do if you were asked to draw or paint prayer?” she asks. “All I know is that in the past decade, money and consumerism have overshadowed everything else and have become rituals in our lives. Now, with world economies melting, people have started wondering how to get their lives back on track in these difficult moments. That’s when people resort to their faith and begin praying. It is faith and religion that helps fill that void in you. That’s how powerful religion can be and my drawings depict the role of religion in a secular age,” she says.

The drawings are, in fact, rubbings, made by scratching charcoal on thin paper over prayer stones called mohrs — it’s made of special clay brought in from Karbala in Iraq where the Prophet’s grandson Imam Hussain was martyred and the belief says that it has healing powers. She has a display of coloured mohrs on the table. “These prayer stones are placed on prayer rugs. It’s a part of the ritual of prayer as the person places his/her head onto the prayer stone as he or she bends down to pray. Mostly, Shias use the prayer stone. The objects that we use to practice rituals have always fascinated me so I’ve used it to create my form of art,” she adds.

It takes about two months to do a large canvas. “Art is like my child. I try to better it and bring in new details daily. If I make a mistake, I let it go, because that adds to the beauty of the creation as the error remains. It’s imperfectly perfect,” she smiles.

She employs an unusual matrix while retaining the tradition of Persian calligraphy of writing repeated letters to produce abstract compositions. The practice was especially strong in Qajar Iran, a time when calligraphers writing in the Shikasteh script 
would fill entire pages with repetitions of certain letters without literal meaning.

There’s an element of Sufism also in her works. “That’s true as circles are a representation of life, the day-to-day rituals that give structure to life. The connection here is that Sufi mystics encompass a circular sense of logic and even their trance-like ritual is going round in circles,” she reveals.

She knows the exact purpose of her creations. “I’m not propagating anything here, in the sense that one should become more religious. I’m just drawing attention to what’s already happening in society and to the ritual of prayer,” she says.

The artist has her work displayed at the FBI headquarters in 
New York. “It’s very interesting how it got there,” she says, 
adding, “Once a month, the employees are asked to select any art piece that they love and the FBI buys it for them. My painting got 
a high number of votes and so, I’m up there on that wall,” she 
says, happily.

raziqueh@khaleejtimes.com

A Delicacy Of The Heart

By Ülkü Özel Akagündüz, *The courtyard of the Nakkaş: where words become art* - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

People hold stone in high esteem; it’s a good thing that stone is so durable and unyielding, so that neither the wind’s fury nor the pummeling rain can destroy it… It is said that stone’s heart is hard.

Lies! If that were the case, then why are mosques, madrasas, masjids and Sufi lodges so appealing? The Atik Valide Külliyesi in Üsküdar, for example -- why is it so seemingly companionable? The thing that excites us about this lodge is the elegance that flows between its stones. If you look at the courtyard, the walls, the windows, which are deaf to the outside and open to the inside, the doors, the rooms behind the doors… The stones waited disgruntled for quite some time, abandoned to fate, and as a result of the destructiveness of fate, fell from their places like hair and teeth. But rejuvenation was also written into their fate, with the emergence of the right man for the job, a skilled man who appeared on the scene; the name of this designer-architect is Semih İrteş. And at his side is an old, trusted friend -- illuminator Mamure Öz.

For years, the two buddies and artists met the demand for their pieces from a run-down studio in their apartment building. Now, they are in the right spot, a place well-suited for the traditional arts, this exquisite Sufi lodge, which is as suitable for art as art is for itself… With brushes in their hands, these two work at a breathless pace between gold gildings in these rooms; the calligraphy, miniatures and illuminated pieces are fitting for these walls. The autumn flowers in the garden fall upon the pieces of paper Öz is working on -- the pinks look pinker and the green looks greener. This place is now a mural studio. Let’s lean back against the walls of the Sufi lodge that Koca Sinan made and ask İrteş our questions: Who can be called a nakkaş? What places can be called nakkaşhanes? What is the story of the transformation of this old Sufi lodge, weathered by the ages, into an Ottoman nakkaşhane?

Perpetuating the nakkaşhane system
The word nakkaş is used to designate one who had attained a level of competence in both the design, composition and implementation of the creation of works of art. As can be understood, this requires multiple skills -- not everyone who works in decoration is a nakkaş. When it comes to the nakkaşhanes of Ottoman times, they were places where illuminators, muralists and nakkaşes would work together in one place; they both produced art and trained students. We’re talking about a system that is difficult to understand, where those who emerge from “ghetto” studios are immediately known as “masters.” This system is alive at Atik Valide, where some young apprentices that haven’t left their teachers’ sides for 15 years are now beginning to etch designs while others press gold. Öz directs the illumination work and İrteş manages the architectural design work.

Exhibitions are important, as it is through these that the doors of the nakkaşhane are opened to art lovers. This location and the pieces of art adorning the walls make it possible to see the details of a civilization. A book in İrteş’s hand has decorations not just on the outside of the book cover, but on the inside as well. “This is a delicacy of the heart,” the artist says. “Think about the society of a civilization that would take such care to decorate books so finely. The lifestyle of the members of that society, the way they would behave toward one another… How they sit, how they stand, what they eat, what they drink -- think about it. It is because we’ve lost this refinement that we are poking each others’ eyes out.”

The orders that come are from people with a desire in their hearts to see panels with religious inscriptions on the walls of their homes. Öz says: “One of our goals is also to bring works of art to walls. There is a strict discipline in the creation of this art. There are a limited number of artists who implement the required discipline accordingly when creating pieces. We see ourselves as a group that is preparing to pass over our duties to the next generation.” Those who take courses at this place need patience as well, as the classes take place only once a week and therefore extend over the course of many years -- without a true love and passion for the work, one would lose interest. It’s a bit surprising to find that this Sufi lodge that İrteş restored out of his own means is being rented out to him. In 10 years, he must also renew his contract. One would have expected that some institution or foundation would have restored this place, not a lone artist -- or that some lover of art would ensure the future of this place. Wouldn’t that be grand?

Caferağa Madrasa Applied Handcrafts Center:
One of the longest-standing centers of education in traditional Turkish arts is the Caferağa Madrasa. Calligraphy, illumination, miniature and ebru classes are available during weekdays and weekends. The monthly cost for one three-hour class a week is TL 135. The center is closed on Mondays. Call 212 513 36 01 or visit www.tkhv.org

Topkapı Palace illumination course:
Illumination courses are given on Saturdays at the palace. The instructors are Mamure Öz and Semih İrteş. In December, an entrance examination is held for students, and about 20 students are accepted annually. The course is free of charge. For information, 212 512 04 80

Küçükayasofya Madrasa:
This madrasa, a structure right next to the Küçükayasofya Mosque that was restored and opened to the public, is a great place to relax with its tranquil garden, but there are different studios hidden within each of its cells. For information on calligraphy, illumination and ebru courses offered here, contact the Ahmet Yesevi Foundation: 212 638 50 12

Picture: Nakkaş Semih İrteş (second left) guides his students at the Valide-i Atik complex built by Architect Sinan, which also teaches illumination, marbling, miniature and calligraphy.

A Global Symbol of Altruism

MNA - Mehr News - Tehran, Iran

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The exhibit, “Iran, Spiritual Manifestation in Art” was inaugurated during a ceremony on October 22 at the venue of Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma in Italy.

Iran’s ambassador to the Vatican Mohammad-Javad Faridzadeh, the cultural deputy of the mayor of Shiraz Mohammad Ali Moein, Iran’s cultural attaché in Italy Alireza Esmaeili and other Iranian and Italian officials attended the event.

The works on display have been created over the last two years by 18 artists from Shiraz in a collaborative effort. The collection consists of 73 artworks including calligraphy-painting, illumination, miniatures and calligraphy on the theme of Rumi, Moin mentioned during the ceremony.

Esmaeili went on to say that Rumi has become a global symbol of altruism, honesty and spiritualism. The cultural attaché’s office is holding this exhibit in Italy during Iran’s cultural week in honor of the 800th birth anniversary of Rumi.

Four artists from Shiraz will be holding workshops on Iranian miniatures, calligraphy and contemporary art on the sidelines of the event.

[Picture from: http://www.exibart.com/profilo/eventiV2.asp/idelemento/46815].

A Unique Collection of Its Kind

TT Art Desk - Tehran Times - Tehran, Iran
Thursday, October 18, 2007

Iranian artists illustrate Rumi’s Divan of Shams

The Iranian Academy of Arts is to publish a version of Rumi’s Divan of Shams illustrated by Iranian artists.

The book contains 50 illustrations by contemporary artists compiled by Mehdi Hosseini and will be published to commemorate the 800th birth anniversary of Rumi.

According to Hosseini, the project was initiated two years ago by the secretary of the Academy, Bahman Namvar-Motlaq, who invited artists to participate in the task.

On the process of the work, he said, “We provided the artists a copy of literature professor Mohammadreza Shafiei Kadkani’s version of the Divan of Shams, and each artist began the illustration work based on personal preference.”

Hosseini went on to say that the book will be a unique collection of its kind, adding, “This is the first time that the Divan of Shams is being both calligraphed and illustrated. This was only done for other great poets of the past”.

“The book contains a combination of modern painting with traditional calligraphy. Illustration and calligraphy works in the past were only created using traditional methods,” he explained.

Sedaqat Jabbari will do the calligraphy for the book, which will also feature English and French translations.

Like Wine Out of the Jug

Staff report, "First of its kind Sufi festival to be held in Ajmer" The Times of India - India
Monday, February 23, 2009

Ajmer: To spread the message of harmony and brotherhood, a Sufi festival is being organized for the first time at the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer from February 24.

The festival will have more that 400 participants showcasing their painting and calligraphy skills based on Islam.

The theme would highlight moderate Islam that does not discriminate one person from another.

Briefing the media about the purpose of the festival, Dr Janmadulla Hussein Chishti, convenor of the festival, said: "It is a dying art. Through calligraphy, painters want to describe Sufism. The art will show how one can love the Almighty."

He added, "Sufi paintings show how a devotee can go into a trance leaving everything behind. It gives out the message of love."

Talking about the venue of the festival, Janmadulla said: "The festival would be organized in mehfil khana of dargah and it would remain open till March 4."

He said that this is the first time in the country when a festival on Sufi art has been organized.

"Since Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was one of the greatest Sufi followers in the country, we are trying to give the message of love to all the people from here," said Janmadulla.

Meanwhile, Salman Chishti, who took the initiative to re-establish Sufi art in the country said, "Traces of Sufi art are found mostly in Turkey and I am recollecting calligraphy on Sufism. About 400 paintings have been invited in this exhibition."

He said, "The love of the Almighty gives significance to harmony that is above all class, creed and colour. It is an initiation to support moderate Islam throughout the world," said Salman.

"This art form, which was in full swing during the period of Omar Khayyam, when the love of the Almighty was shown with a glass and a jug of wine or a woman and man, is slowly dying. It was a way of showing that the Almighty pours out His love for devotees just like wine is poured out of the jug. Real Sufism went with Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti who came to India from Turkey."

To spread the message of Sufi art, a delegation from Turkey will also arrive here. "We have also invited Sufi painter Jama Anand from Gujarat.

A delegation of the Ashki Jerrahi Order reached Ajmer on Sunday to see the preparation of the Sufi festival. We are also running this organization in America to spread Sufism," said Nabeel Sarwar, a member of the Jerrahi Order.

[Picture: Salman Chishty Phtography. Photo from http://www.chishtyfoundation.org/sufiart.htm].

Space for Many Meanings

By Anahi Alviso-Marino, "The artistic scene in Sana'a: painters speak (I)" - Yemen Observer - Sana'a, Yemen
Tuesday, October 21, 2008

With this new series of interviews, The Yemen Observer enters into the artistic scene of Sana’a to find out about artists, their work and their concerns over the challenges and achievements of the arts in Yemen.

Artist, art critic and university lecturer, Amnah al-Nasiri, opens the debate about the current situation of art in Yemen.

A long list of solo exhibitions, participation in international shows as well as book and article publications precedes one of the most renowned Yemeni artists whose work seems to be an infinite dialogue between philosophy and art.

After accomplishing her doctoral studies in aesthetics in Russia, al-Nasiri returned to Yemen where she currently works as an artist and teaches at the Philosophy department of the University of Sana’a. Every Thursday morning she receives artists, students, and whoever is interested in art at an atelier located in Bab al-Yemen, where her paintings are permanently on display together with those of other artists.

What do you wish to transmit with your paintings?
Many things. One of my concerns is that now most of the interest is fixed in the postmodernist movement and the word culture. With this, art is going far away from the human being, from humanism. My work follows a more humanist line. I try to talk about people, about who we are, about life. For example, two years ago I had an exhibition called “Creatures” in which I tackled life in general, from animals to anything that can be a form of life. If we think about art in material terms and forget or leave aside the human aspect, then we face a big problem. This is the main philosophy of my art work. I also mix Sufism, folklore, ornaments, and philosophy of course. Circles, figures of all types…symbols in the end, visual symbols that are part of Sufism are very present in my work as well. The relationship between art and others is important to me too, for example the relationship between a butterfly and a fly; I put them at the same level of the human. It’s all life.

Speaking about Sufi symbols in your work, is the calligraphy you draw in your paintings part of this influence as well?
No, the calligraphy has nothing to do with Sufism in my work, it is something different. It also comes from Islamic art but it does not have any connection with Sufi philosophy. In my work, calligraphy is “a form” and I try to use it without any meanings, without poetry or any religious meaning. I like the form of the writing.

Cats and birds are very present in your pieces, what is the meaning you give to them?
I use animals because I think they provoke the imagination. I want to put them out of context to provoke this.

There is a very impressive piece of yours, an installation I think, in which we see hands tied with wires. What was the message implied in this work?
“Al hasar,” you mean. This work created a lot of discussion because I used one of my abayas and on the place where the head was supposed to be, I put three hands tied with this wire that is used to secure prison walls. It was all illuminated with a red light. The hands are trying to go out from where the head should be. Around it there were a lot of hands also wired with this spiky wire. To me, this piece speaks about women that want to go out, women that want to break limits. However, and what is important, is that it is open to interpretation because above all I wanted people to decide by themselves what this piece could mean. It is very important in art to give the opportunity to interpret, to leave the space for many meanings to appear. This installation took place in Egypt and people liked it very much. I am planning on showing it in Yemen and also I want to do a video installation to bring different ideas here.

You mentioned the abaya and this idea about women sort of rebelling or breaking limits, is there anything you wish to address regarding women?
No, and it is because I don’t care, and you know why? Because I am not a feminist, both women and men have difficult lives in Yemen at several levels, but is not a matter of being a woman or a man. The problem is the mentality of the society, the education and these among other things are the things that have to change.

Sometimes in your work it is difficult to say if your human figures are male, female, both or neither. Is this something you do in purpose?
Yes, completely. If I draw women, people will think that I focus on women’s problems. When you draw a man no one asks or assumes anything. I don’t want to highlight any gender problem or difference in my paintings. I want to draw human beings, nothing else.

You also have a long trajectory writing in different newspapers and art publications, what is the focus of your concerns as a writer?
I write about philosophy and problems that are present in society or in religion. For that I research, and as a researcher I care about many things, but as an artist I focus on other things. I work on different areas and my work also depends on the audience I am addressing. For instance, when I write for newspapers, I try to explain art to people who are not very familiar with it; when I write in a research capacity it is often to explain more complex issues – for instance in my latest writings I wrote on violence as it is presented or used though art. Violence is present everywhere and now artists use it too. I talked in my studies about video games and movies that children watch, strong violence that some artists later also incorporate into their work. In Germany for instance, some artists killed an elephant on the street and at that time it was something above all very “unusual” and thus it provoked a big effect. Now some artists use dead people in art exhibitions. These uses are a problem in my view and I discuss all this in my new book. It is a problem that reflects part of what is happening in the world, the wars now taking place.

Speaking of this, two years ago in 2006 you participated in an exhibition held in Sana’a called “We will not forget.” Was it related to any of these concerns?
It was about the war in Lebanon.

It seems that a lot of your work has a political meaning as well…
Well, sometimes you must. In any case though you cannot deal with everything that is happening around you and I don’t want to reflect this in my work, so my work is not explicit. Of course I cannot be outside society so I care, but I express that by other means, like when I write. If I include politics in my art, in my paintings, then they could become just posters.

How would you describe the artistic scene in Yemen? What are the obstacles, challenges and achievements you see?
There are many problems; one of them is economic. Artists are not well paid and since they need money for their projects they focus on portraits or realistic art, which is what people buy here. Avant garde, abstract art is not appreciated or well understood. This is also a problem because it leaves abstract art behind. In Yemen this art is more appreciated by the intelligentsia, but even then, they don’t understand it completely and sometimes they buy it without really having a deep appreciation of it. I say this because sometimes you go to houses that belong to very wealthy people and they have pieces of art hanging next to framed pictures “Made in China”. Foreigners also buy, but sometimes as a way to bring with them part of Yemen’s folklore. When I paint I don’t think about this, but I know it is a problem, especially for young artists because is hard to live out of your art pieces. In my case I decided to work as a professor so I could remain free and do really what I want because I don’t depend on art to make my living. But for young artists that have no other better jobs, this is a problem and makes them turn into what the “clients” want instead of what they want to express. This problem affects the region as well, there is a lack of appreciation of abstract art and some people, like in the Gulf, buy pieces of art because they represent “culture” but again, not because it represents something to them or because they understand it. They buy it as products. In general, there is a need to educate people about art in order to create a better understanding of non-realistic art. What is positive is that the younger generations care more about this lack of appreciation and are filling this gap, something I see with some of my students.

Calligraphy and Concert in Bahrain

Gulf Daily News - Manama, Bahrain
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Iranian artist Golnaz Fathi's exhibition at the La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Art in Manama will open tomorrow [today, Thursday the 15th] at 6pm.
The work of this well-known artist has been exhibited extensively in many museums and galleries throughout the Middle East, the US and Europe - including the British Museum in London - over the last decade.

Inspired by Iranian cultural heritage, Persian traditional calligraphy and poetry like those written by Nizar Qabbani, the great Syrian poet who wrote extensively on womanhood, Golnaz's passion gave her the dedication to practice her skill for up to seven hours a day. This degree of commitment was rewarded with the prestigious award for Best Woman Calligraphist in the Ketabat style.

The exhibition will be held until April 26 and is open to all from 10am-1pm and from 4pm-7pm, Saturdays to Thursdays.

Meanwhile, La Fontaine, in association with Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, is presenting a night of authentic Sufi music with Salar Aghili on March 21.

Sufi music has retained a unique emotional authenticity, which derives from its mystical heritage and inspiration.

When expressed through the medium of Salar Aghili's rare and practised vocal technique, it engages all our senses and carries our imagination off to a bygone age of heroic chivalry.

[Read also:http://sufinews.blogspot.com/search?q=calligraphy]

With All Its Symbols

By Mahtab Bashir, *Iranian artist showcases ‘Spirituality’ at Khaas Gallery* - Daily Times - Pakistan
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Islamabad: Influenced by the Sufi spirituality and Iranian history and culture, Mohsen Keiany, an Iranian artist showcased an exquisite collection of his 15 contemporary art paintings titled ‘Spirituality’ here at Khaas Art Gallery (KAG) on Tuesday.

Keiany, the Iranian painter more than being attached to the familiar nature is fond of the intangible world to shape, manifest and register the extremity of his imagination in the most attractive fashion. He contemplates some spirituality for his artwork beyond the entities pre-dominating the unstable material life. For Keiany, only an art faithful to humanism and its more general concepts can be permanent and long lasting, that is why his artworks get applause, all over the world.

‘Spirituality’ by Keiany, is a glossy cluster of 15 canvases that exude an aura of mystery and spiritualism. Keiany, a British of Persian lineage has previously exhibited his work in a number of cities in England and Iran. The images invariably feature bearded men, mostly with their eyes closed, and some with only one eye which stares somewhat vacantly into an arcane void. These men are supposed to be in some kind of trance, induced no doubt by an acute bout of meditation. The total detachment of the Sufi that Keiany is trying to portray can also be found in Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and in the philosophy of the ancient Chinese thinker Lao-tse.

Holding a PhD degree in Architecture from UCE, Birmingham, Keiany’s canvases carry a lot of horses, some ready to carry warriors into battle, others that are just an adornment in a composition. In one picture the animals line up at an imaginary starting gate, as if they are about to compete in the St Leger, while a girl with a flute stands by idly.

Deeply etched into every canvas is a strip of Persian calligraphy, an embellishment that greatly heightens the appeal of every picture.

The calligraphy, in fact, has a beauty all its own and could easily form the subject of another exhibition. At times the words appear in the form of an aura around a head, giving the holy one a touch of sanctified righteousness. But usually it appears as a cluster of dense writing or in strips as in a Japanese print.

The five most satisfying and thought-provoking of these paintings including ‘The Horse Shepherd’, ‘The Blue Sufis’, ‘Chashm- Entazar’, ‘Bahar and Horses’ and ‘The Rule of Life’ are outstanding and noteworthy.

The way the horsemen face each other, totally oblivious to the impending peril, fired by the thought of imminent victory, is quite riveting and the use of colour which starts off as a splash of beige, graduates to a brown and ends in a muted turquoise is absolutely marvelous.

Another fascinating composition in many of Keiany’s collection features the great Persian poet Hafiz Shirazi, Maulana Rumi, Shiekh Saadi and Umar Khayyam’s poetry and philosophy. Most notable in the composition apart from the figure of the poet is the enchanting geometric patterns and textures.

Talking to Daily Times Keiany said his work was deeply influenced by his Persian backgrounds. “Historical, religious and cultural themes feature strongly, especially the influence of Sufi spirituality and my experience in the Iran-Iraq war. My art can contribute not just to the aesthetic pleasure that people will experience but also enhance their understanding of diverse art traditions,” he said.

The solo show of Keiany’s paintings open the window to the scintillating world of Sufism with all its symbols, metaphors and allegories. The show would remain open for public view at Khaas Art Gallery (House No 1, Street No 2, F.6/3) till May 3.

Nastaliq Verses

RM/HG, "Shirchi calligraphy show begins European tour" - Mehr News - Tehran, Iran
Wednesday, May 28, 2008

An exhibit of the works of veteran Iranian calligrapher Esrafil Shirchi opened in Luxembourg on Wednesday.

Over thirty works of calligraphy in the nastaliq style bearing verses by Iranian poets Omar Khayyam and Rumi are on display in the exhibit, which is the first show of its three-week European tour.

Shirchi is also holding a workshop in the side section of the exhibit.

The show will travel to Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France after its run in Luxembourg.

After the European tour, Shirchi will hold several exhibits in Tehran and other Iranian cities in autumn.

He is also planning to hold an exhibit in New York in the future.

Born in 1962 in Babol, Mazandaran Province, Shirchi studied art at the University Of Tehran and later the Association of Iranian Calligraphers awarded him a master calligrapher certificate.

Artist creates gilded Rumi poem

SN/MR/BG - Press Tv - Tehran, Iran

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

An Iranian artist has created a gilded reproduction of lyrics by the persian poet Rumi to commemorate the bard's 800th birthday.

The laborious work took over a year to make. It is a sumptuous combination of traditional calligraphy, persian miniature painting, and intricate gilding.

Manuchehr Roshan-Ravan considered it an honor to portray Rumi's transcendental art, saying Rumi's poetry was worth all the work.

The 44-year-old artist has been producing painting, calligraphy, and gilded art since he was a teenager. In recent years he has created memorable works of art based on Quranic verses as well as poems by classical persian authors including Hafez, Sa'di and Omar Khayyam.

Through The Arts

By Meredith S. Steuer, *Middle Ground* - The Harvard Crimson - Cambridge, MA, USA

Friday, October 30, 2009

Parting the curtains of “In the Courtyard of the Beloved,” the viewer enters a sacred alcove of bright colors, intricate geometric decorations, and minarets.

The installation—part of the new exhibition at the Peabody Museum, “Sacred Spaces: Reflections on a Sufi Path”—sweeps the viewer away from the gallery, flies him across oceans, pulls him through the crowded streets of Delhi, and finally ushers him into a Sufi shrine.

There, the digital still images and audio recordings bring into view a personal practice of a mystical dimension of Islam.

“In the Courtyard of the Beloved,” makes clear the exhibition’s pedagogical purpose. A collection of photographs, calligraphic works, and mixed media montages, “Sacred Spaces,” presents a pluralistic view of Islam as it is expressed and practiced today. In a time when the religion is oft associated with terrorism, extremism, and oppression, the exhibition offers a nuanced view of Islam and is careful to depict its multifaceted nature.

“Sacred Spaces: Reflections on a Sufi Path,” and its companion display “Sacred Spaces: The World of Dervishes, Fakirs, and Sufis” at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, are part of a greater initiative, for which faculty and students are also advocating, to use art to educate the Harvard community about the religion of Islam, and by extension, Middle Eastern cultures. And for artists within an Islamic tradition who wish to educate a Western audience, these social motivations must be balanced against their aesthetic goals.

A CREATION STORY
Islamic art, as in many other religious traditions, has historically been conscious of its inseparability from the divine, a sentiment that continues to operate within the on-campus Islamic community.

“God bestowed artistry and other gifts to mankind,” says Nafees A. Syed ’10, a practicing Muslim and Crimson staff editorial writer. “Even when Solomon built this beautiful temple there was a recognition of where the gifts came from.” Na’eel A. Cajee ’10, president of the Islamic student society, sees this relationship as reciprocal. “When you produce something that is beautiful it is usually an attempt at perfected expression or proportion,” he says. “Art, for me, is striving for perfection but ultimately falling short of the Perfect, which is God. This is the idea that is behind art and is an inspiration for artists.”

For the general Harvard community, however, Islamic art’s relevance is not necessarily its religious import but its undeniable cultural significance. “First of all, you have to think about religious traditions as cultural phenomenon embedded in context—social and political and literary and artistic,” says Professor Ali S. Asani, professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures and Associate Director of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program.

“Great works of Christian secular music are tied closely to piety. We are used to thinking about religion in theological forms. Religion is such a complex phenomenon that religious discourse can be found in many other forms. Muslims in the Islamic world are no exception.”

Next semester, Asani will be teaching a General Education class that will serve as an introduction to Islam and Muslim culture through the arts. The class will explore a wide range of Muslim art forms, including the architecture of mosques, poetry, Koran recitation, devotional song, and calligraphy. “We will study them and try to understand them for their own aesthetic value based on the culture they’re coming from and use those art forms as lenses to understand Muslim culture,” Asani says.

Students will then have the opportunity to design a mosque for an urban American landscape, create a poem in English using the structure and symbolism of a genre of Islamic poetry study, and produce their own works of calligraphy so that they can participate in and understand the practice of Islam. Using art in such a way helps students engage with the religion in a more meaningful way.

“The representations of Muslims have been so negative,” Asani says. “How de we counteract Islamaphobia? I am a firm believer that one way in which people can understand each other is through the arts.”

ARTISTIC EFFECT
Samina Quraeshi, the first Robert Gardner Visiting Artist Fellow at the Peabody Museum, is currently using her time at Harvard to put this notion into practice. Quraeshi’s work, which is currently displayed in “Sacred Spaces” as part of her fellowship, attempts to translate her conception of homeland—a complicated interweaving of her birth in India, Pakistani Muslim upbringing, and Catholic education—into a cultural experience.

Fundamentally believing that the personal cannot be separated from artistic production, Quraeshi’s visual pieces are permeated by her lived encounter with her own strain of the religion, Sufism. “I don’t think one can avoid the influences of one’s place of birth,” says Samina Quraeshi.“You are raised [in a certain] way and the colors and the textures and all of the sensory experience you are surrounded by are etched in your brain.”

Despite the highly personal nature of her art, the work has broader social implications, namely to add nuance to what she sees as a typically monolithic portrayal of Islam. In conjunction with her new book published by the Peabody Press—“Sacred Spaces: A Journey with the Sufis of the Indus,”—the pieces on view portray the multiplicity found in Sufi traditions. “This book and exhibition is a personal and artistic act of resistance against those forces both within Islam and outside of it that seek to deny such nuances, to silence the voices of mystics, and to distill the diversity of Islamic piety into something essential, unitary, and uniform,” Quraeshi said in her speech at the opening of “Sacred Spaces.”

The Peabody exhibition was originally intended to be a display of her photographic documentation of the Muslim sect. However, Quraeshi felt that the photographs would have alone failed to portray a holistic view of Sufism, one that would be able to educate a Western viewer. “I was struggling to express Sufism, and I felt that the photographs were not enough,” the artist says. “I wanted to express the emotional experience, and that’s where the art came in.”

ESCHEWING THE LABEL
While Quraeshi believes it unorthodox to use contemporary art to a humanizing anthropological end, such is a necessary gesture to accurately depict the many facets of Islam to a Western audience. “I want these images to speak across the barriers of cultural mores, linguistic obstacles, and obscure practices,” Quraeshi said at the exhibition opening.

But despite her efforts to inform the Harvard community about Sufism, Quraeshi does not want to be considered an Islamic artist. “It’s a sensitive subject because of all of the horrible things being done in the name of Islam,” she says. “It’s sort of like calling a woman a female artist. You are either an artist or you are not.”

This emphasis demonstrates Quraeshi’s nuanced approach to Islamic culture; her rejection of broad categorizations and the accentuation of the personal in her art sensitize her viewers to the complexities of an important world religion. Ultimately, this even-handed approach—balancing accessibility with personal aesthetic value—is important for a responsible ethnological presentation of Islam.

“I think the goal of the Peabody is to represent the traditions of man,” Quraeshi says. “My work is the living tradition of an area of the world that is very underrepresented. The exhibition is very much in the idea of inclusion and exposing the students to not only the history of mankind but also the living tradition as it is practiced today.”

[Meet Samina Quraeshi; Visit the Peabody Museum]

[Picture: The Garden Of Paradise]

A Journey of Self-exploration

By Sanka Vidanagama, "Beyond the subject, into the spiritual" - The Sunday Times - Colombo, Sri Lanka
Sunday, February 15, 2009

‘Fusion’ an exhibition of paintings by Naureen Naqvi and Michael Anthonisz is now on at the Barefoot Gallery and will continue till February 22.

Naureen Naqvi is enjoying the luxury of being a full-time artist. She has only been in Colombo a week but her mind is brimming with ideas and her sketchpad is filling up fast. Not surprisingly for this accomplished artist, her calendar is already full for the months ahead.

Here for a joint exhibition with Sri Lankan artist Michael Anthonisz, she is also working on her next show to be held in the US and after that one in Islamabad.

The vivacious Pakistani artist is very much at home in Colombo and feels an affinity with the country and its people. Having been here three times before, first representing Pakistan at an international artists’ camp organised by the George Keyt Foundation in 2000 and then subsequently when she was working for UNICEF, she has many friends here and it was through one of them that she met Mike Anthonisz.

They discovered common ground in their love of old buildings and the religious undertones that colour their work and so blossomed the idea for a joint exhibition.

“We discussed the idea of having a joint exhibition three years ago, but it never really materialized until three months ago when Mike asked if we could go ahead,” Naureen says. The title ‘Fusion’ would be an indication of not just the meeting of two painters and their work but also of how much the two countries have in common.

She feels there are many similarities between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. “We are both suffering the effects of violence. People are very kind but they are portrayed in a different way. It’s peace that is missing in this part of the world and that is what people are searching for.”

“I thought my paintings for this exhibition should show people here something about Pakistan, what we do there,” she muses. Also the province I am living in- Punjab. We have many shrines in Punjab – it’s a very spiritual place, surrounded by peace. I used to think a lot about why so many people travel from all over the world to worship there.”

Her paintings are spiritual she feels, she herself now increasingly drawn to Sufism - the exploration of which will form the basis of her next exhibition.

Deeply influenced by her heritage she explains that Muslim art is also related to calligraphy- the writing, the script being portrayed in an artistic way through the calligraphy and she has elements of this in her paintings.

Figures are a part, but not significant in her paintings, she says, adding that while she may paint the dancers, she looks at why they dance.
“I see beyond them I don’t try to just capture the whole body- just that movement. It comes out in the splashes of colour.”

How easy is it to pursue a career as an artist in Pakistan? “It’s a struggle,” she concedes, though in her own path she was fortunate that she was given the freedom to study art at University and even do her Masters in the subject by a supportive family.

She went on to teach art at University and also worked in Holland for a year before returning to Lahore to take up a high-level post with the Government of Punjab, as Deputy Secretary for Women’s Development and later with UNICEF, her concern for women and children running parallel with her art.

These have been causes she feels strongly about - the discrimination the majority of women suffer and the devastating effects of poverty on those who have no voice- women and children.

She relates how in the course of building awareness against the hidden spectre of domestic violence, they would even take a Muslim scholar with them when they went to talk to men’s groups so that any arguments about religion being the root of their discriminating attitude to women could be instantly rebutted.

Many are the awards she has received not just for her artistic prowess but also for her work in the field of women’s empowerment, but for Naureen, who has just given up her job at UNICEF, her art is a journey of self-exploration, and one that is deeply woven into the fabric of her life.

“Each day I open a new window that takes me to myself,” is how she sees it.