Wissam Shawkat was introduced to Arabic calligraphy at the age of 10 by a teacher in his school in Basra, Iraq. He got so interested in this ancient art form that he avidly read books on the subject, visited museums and libraries across the region and trained with well-known calligraphers to master its techniques, rigorous rules and different styles. The Dubai-based artist, designer and Arabic typographer has received numerous awards for his calligraphic works and has participated both as an artist and a committee member at several editions of the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial and the Dubai International Calligraphy Exhibition. His work is regularly featured in books on Arabic calligraphy and typography, included in museum exhibitions and acquired by private collectors.
But in his recent work, Shawkat has broken with traditional calligraphy and started using the letters as a foundation for works of dynamic abstraction. He has developed a contemporary style, which he calls Calligraform that focuses on the precise forms of the letters, but also on the abstract shapes generated by examining the geometric spaces inside and outside of their structures. The artist is presenting his recent calligraform works on paper and linen in an exhibition at XVA gallery titled, Inside/Outside.
“I am a calligrapher turned conceptually motivated artist. But to be able to break out from the most rigid, rule based medium into abstraction, I have spent over three decades dutifully studying traditional scripts, compositions and forms, until at last I felt qualified to judge which principles could be overridden and unbound, and which should remain. I am drawn to the graphic value of the Arabic letters well beyond their literal meanings, but the forms I create are not exclusively anchored in the Arab world, because I am moved as much by old Turkish masters as I am by the Bauhaus, Geometric Abstraction, Futurism, Cubism, and Cecil Touchon’s collages. Beginning with this new body of work, I have chosen to refer to my style and approach as Calligraform because it puts emphasis on the forms of the letters, their inner and outer spaces and graphic quality, investigated in tandem with the precise shapes of calligraphic characters,” Shawkat says.
Inside/Outside will run at XVA gallery in the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood until March 7.
