The Graphics of Calligraphy (4/4)

Integrating calligraphy with graphic design


Smoking awareness poster by Tahamtan Aminian, an Iranian graphic designer.

Although calligraphy may be a form of graphic design, the relationship between the two disciplines is being pushed to test new possibilities. This relationship is not merely limited to the creative execution of paragraphs, quotes and/or words as to impress an audience... calligraphy here is used as a design method which drives the artist in visualizing a concept as well as a design element that is fundamental in communicating an idea. Here you find Islamic calligraphy being used as an integral part for marketable representation in commercial and cultural industries.

This new integration of Islamic calligraphy into the graphic design of posters, book covers, brochures, logos and advertisements marks yet a new development phase of calligraphy in the Islamic world. As the art of Islamic calligraphy began with the Qur'an and literary works, moved on to figural representation, and arrive at the modern artistic movements, it is now beginning a new journey in the commercial world; a new trend that may have developed from Iran.

[The] brilliant calligraphic background in Iranian arts enabled the New Generation of Iranian graphic designers to present a new and different typographical attitude to the world. Typography is a website showcasing Iranian graphic designers dedicated to introducing this new style of calligraphy to the western world. Artists around the Arab world are beginning to experiment with this emerging style too, which can be seen in collaboration efforts between Iranian and Arab artists in websites like khatt.

Perhaps the best examples I've seen so far in this field are the posters of Mehdi Saeedi, an award winning designer. Here are few examples:




Posters for Islamic Design Exhibitions



Posters for Musical Festivals.

The Graphics of Calligraphy (3/4)

Calligraphy and the influences of modern movements


Modern painting of Persian calligraphy.

In a post about Arabic calligraphy, the writer argues that Arabic calligraphy is largely ignored outside the Middle East and it did not enter the mainstream culture. A comment to that post raises an interesting point, that is Arabic calligraphy is seen quite often on the signs and buildings we see everyday in the newscasts about deaths in Iraq, and unfortunately, we see it on the websites of fundamentalist terrorist groups... right next to the videos of beheadings. In the popular subconscious, these sorts of images have been linked to the emotions we feel over what's going on in the Middle East lately, and... it's very unfortunate that this has happened.

In my opinion the reason that Arabic calligraphy as an art did not enter the mainstream culture extends beyond the religious and political association of Arabic calligraphy. It is because the development of Arabic calligraphic art as we know it today came as a result of a search for cultural identity.

As stated in a previous post, the desire of Islamic artists to create pictures was a current that proved to be too strong to dam. So it was inevitable that Arab artists would soon leap into the world of figural representation as the taboos began to loosen up. Since by this time churches have already been converted to mosques and vise versa, the cultural clash between the Islamic and European worlds have opened the gate for Arab artists to adopt European artistic movements and theories and apply them to local scenes found in the Arabian culture. Arabic artists have adopted the classical styles and were satisfied with going as far as the techniques of Impressionism lead them. However, Arab artists did not experiment with the more abstract modern movements such as Cubism or Surrealism until the 1950s. And when they did so, questions of Identity and cultural preservation started arising... especially at a time when Arab countries were fighting for independency from European colonization.

So as a response to the western invasion of the Arabic culture and social life, the 1950s witnessed the re-emergency of calligraphy as a way for establishing an artistic style that is clearly recognized as a local art. For this reason, it could be said Islamic calligraphy have been greatly influenced by the modern movements of abstract art, or the mainstream culture, instead of the other way around. This, in my opinion, caused Islamic calligraphy to be contained within the Islamic world because it still remains as an approach for the search of a threatened cultural identity.

That being said, Islamic calligraphy is starting to penetrate the mainstream culture lately. It is not until the 70s that the first exhibition for this new emerging style has been set up in Baghdad. Before that, there were individual efforts in experimenting with the mixture of calligraphy and modern art that does not necessarily feature Qur'anic verses, but poetry or literary works with themes like love and peace. As it gained popularity, exhibitions of this new style were arranged beyond the borders of the Islamic world, in Europe and the States. And now we can see Arabic calligraphy in the form of tattoos on people like the Portuguese football player Simao and the Swedish football star Ibrahimovic. Or as shirt designs like the one American comedian Robin Williams is wearing, which says "I love New York" in Arabic.

More info can be found here... and now here are some contemporary Arabic calligraphy works:


Painting by Hassan Massoudy of a quote by Al Hallaj which says: "My heart has eyes that see only for you, and it is completely in your hands." Note that the word "heart" is highlighted.


Another painting by Hassan Massoudy of a phrase by Khalil Gibran which says: "Will my heart become a tree laden heavily with fruit that I can pick and give to others?" The word "fruit" is highlighted.


Love and Hate by A1one a Persian artist/anarchist.


Love/Eshgh also by A1one, whose work represent the intergration of calligraphy and graffiti


A1one's solo show in Tehran, 2008.

The Graphics of Calligraphy (2/4)

The development of Figural Calligraphy

In a very interesting essay by Robert Hillenbrand studying the works of Jila Peacock, the author gives an introduction about the development of Arabic calligraphy that I would like to summarize here:

It could be argued that calligraphy has been less subject to... the dominance of ideas from outside the Islamic world than have all its sister arts, from architecture to painting, from pottery to carpets. And the main reason is the high regard that calligraphy is held throughout the Islamic world and its association with the Qur'an. The flexibility and curvilinearity of the Arabic script can employ symmetry, echo, antithesis and other devices which can develop in any direction. This is aided by the special features of the Arabic script which include the interplay between angular and curved letters, capacity to handle compression and prolongation equally, the absence of capital letters producing visual unity, ease of adaptation to large and small scales, accommodation of shifts from the baseline to upper register, as well as apparent characteristics of dynamism, energy and rhythm.

The delight of constantly expanding the boundaries of expression explains why so many contrived scripts were invented in the course of centuries... this began with purely abstract forms and patterns created by careful placing of individual letters or blocks of text. These attempts soon lead to more radical experiments with calligraphy... which involved figural designs or zoomorphic elements. The earliest attempts to do this is often debated but it is more likely to have been originated somewhere near the eastern Iranian world in the twelfth century. This tendency started with incising faces onto the thickened upper shafts of the tallest letters... these faces could be an eyebrow, an eye and a mouth with a neck below... now the shafts of the taller letters have morphed into legless bodies, they interact with unmistakable humor... patting each other on the shoulder... shaking hands... Thus the upper storey of the inscription is shot through with narrative while its ground floor spells out a message of good wishes and happy life.

The next step in the practice of bringing living creatures into calligraphy is related to a loosening of earlier restraints and seems to have originated in the Iranian world. This new mode was not a matter of script metamorphosing into living forms which are also readable letters, but of using script to delineate such forms. This practice established itself only relatively late in Islamic art, when the taboos outlawing religious iconography had lost some of their power... It developed in... Ottoman Turkey, India and Qajar Iran... [and] was known as early as 1458.


An example scanned from the book "The splendor of Islamic Calligraphy" showing an early fusion of calligraphy and floral decoration that soon lead to more radical experimentation.


A traditional example of zoomorphic calligraphy by Hassan Musa.


The first verse of Surah Al-Feel (The elephant, 105) which translates to: Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with the possessors of the elephant?


A hoopoe by Jila Peacock formed by one of Hafez poems, a Persian poet whose statue in Iranian literature is equivalent to Shakespeare in English literature.

Hillenbrand ends his introduction to the context of calligraphy with these comments that I thought were spot-on:

In many of these calligraphic images, one senses that writing is being pushed to its furthest limits so as to make it express unnaturally what it cannot do naturally... These arcane images offer striking evidence as to the slightly perverse outlets into which Islamic artists channeled their frustrated desires to create religious pictures. It was a current which proved too strong for Islamic orthodoxy to dam.

Source for essay link and more info can be found here

The Graphics of Calligraphy (1/4)

As part of working on a project that requires the integration of Arabic Calligraphy, I had to do some research about the subject, which turned out to be very interesting... So this post will be the first of a series about Arabic Calligraphy starting from its traditional background to its contemporary art form.

Background

Its important to appreciate the significance of language in the Arabic culture to understand the development of Arabic calligraphy. Arabs consider language an art form which is evident in their deep love and respect for poetry. For this reason, the miracle that was given to our prophet Mohammad (SAW) is the Qur'an. Even the best of the best poets in the Arabian Peninsula could not compete with the grandeur of the language and rhythm of the Qur'an, thus admitting that this book is not the creation of any man, but a god.

When the prophet died, the Qur'an was passed on from lip to lip by people who have memorized the whole Qur'an. Many of those people were killed in battles, which alarmed the Muslims. As a result, to preserve this miracle the Sahaba requested from Abu Bakr Al-Sideeq (the Caliph) to compile the Qur'an to prevent it from being lost. The Qur'an as we know it today is credited to a later Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, who verified the text and published the Qur'an in writing 18 years after the prophet's death.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that the first verses that were delivered to the prophet (SAW) were the following:

Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created,
Has created man from a clot.
Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous,
Who has taught (the writing) by the pen
Has taught man that which he knew not.
-Surah Al-Alaq (The Clot, 96: 1-5)

This is the starting point for the development of the Arabic calligraphy. Arabs felt the need to master the art in which the words of God would be seen and read. And so the journey of developing the script system that we know it today began, based on the integration of "artistry and scholarship", representing the power and beauty of abstract lines in which energy flows forming the letters and words.

As the Islamic empire expanded towards the non-Arab speaking world, the Arabic calligraphy became an "abstract expression of Islam". This lead to two important factors that changed Arabic calligraphy, the first is the need to reform the written script into a clear and universal manuscript in order for non-Arab Muslims to learn the Arabic language. This is done gradually by the introduction of dots, vowel signs, and other marks known as "Tashkeel", usually written with different colors to be distinguished. The second factor is the introduction of new regional calligraphy. This is mainly influenced by the integration of Arabic calligraphy into non-Arabic cultures forming new calligraphic styles, most notably those that were formed in Persia and Turkey.


9th-10th century Quran in Early Kufic style, Iraq


11th century Quran in Eastern Kufic style, Iran

Styles

Kufi: This is perhaps the oldest calligraphic style which was developed in Kufa in Iraq, hence the name. A number of variations have been introduced to this style. It is characterized by its pronounced angularity, geometrical construction and being considerably wider than it is high. Because of its adaptability to ornamental form, it remains favorable for use in exterior and interior decorations.



Thuluth: This is a cursive script that was formulated during the Umayyad Dynasty. The name means "one third" which is supposed to be the proportion between straight lines and curves. It is characterized by its curved letters with barbed heads, elaborate graphics and it is popular for being used in inscriptions, titles and headings.



Naskh: This cursive script is considered the most popular calligraphic style used. Derived from Thuluth, it was probably redesigned during the Abbasid Dynasty. It is relatively easy to read and write; it uses short horizontal stems, equal vertical depth above and below the medial line, and generally well spaced.



Riq'a: Derived from Thuluth and Naskh, it is a simplified modern cursive style and considered the easiest script for daily handwriting. Letters are similar to those of Thuluth but are smaller, rounded and densely structured with short horizontal stems, and barbed heads are never used.



Ta'liq: Also known as Farsi, it is a cursive script developed by the Persians. This style is considered the native calligraphy among the Persian, Indian, and Turkish Muslims. A lighter and more elegant version of Ta'liq, called Nasta'liq, has been developed by combining it with Naskh. Ta'liq and Nasta'liq are both used extensively in Persian literary works but not for the Qur'an.



Deewani: This style is developed from Ta'liq by the Turks during the Ottoman Empire. It is excessively cursive and its letters are unconventionally joined together. Deewani also developed an ornamental variety called Deewani Jali. The spaces between the letters are filled with decorative devices which do not necessarily have any linguistic value.



Applications

As pictorial ornaments were forbidden in Islam to prevent Idolatry, geometrical patterns and calligraphy became the main decoration elements. For this reason, artists have applied those two elements outside the world of elegant books and into architecture and many crafts such as rugs, woodworking and pottery. But calligraphy have been a decoration element long before Islam, and perhaps the best example for this is the Mu'allaqat (The Hanging Poems), a group of seven long poems written by the best poets of the pre-Islamic period. Those poems were written in gold and hung over the Kaaba as a decoration, showing a very early application of calligraphy as a decorating element.

Today, calligraphy stands as an art on its own, establishing itself as a subject for artists that is open to experimentation. Many artists are specialized in this field and are creating works with innovative approaches to calligraphy in the hopes of developing this art further. More on this will come in the following parts.


The calligraphy decoration of the "kiswah", the cover of the Kaaba


Calligraphy decoration on the entrance of the Taj Mahal

More info can be found here and here and here