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Calligraforms with Wissam Shawkat

Arabic calligraphy now is widely practiced and appreciated for its timeless beauty, a dedication, and patience required to be a master calligrapher. There has been a movement by contemporary artists, introducing styles that are more contemporary, abstract. These styles encompass the rich heritage of calligraphy and infuse it with modern elements, but a knowledge in historic styles is very important.

In recent years many artists both in the East and the West, use calligraphy in their work, painters, decorators, graphic designers, graffiti and tattoo artists and fashion designers. Why we need understanding in calligraphy? Because we have a great wealth of calligraphic styles, which make it quite easy to come up with styles that are contemporary and at the same time based on traditional models. The basic architecture or structure of the letterforms and the many calligraphic variations on the common styles, make it easy to create something new.

Participants will be introduced to Calligraforms, a name I called to the new body of work I produce which is based on appreciating the graphic qualities of letter forms in the world of calligraphy.

“I take special care to work on a contrast between an overall calligraphic statement and the very small details of it, which needs to be looked at as the true quality of individual letters, illustrating its beauty and character. I am in constant dialogue with the shapes generated by the spaces, shadows and silhouettes inside and around the letters. As calligraphers who train in classical scripts, we spend years upon years working towards the mastery of the letters’ forms. We also master the space around them—the positive and negative space, the black and white, the inside and outside of the letters.” —Wissam Shawkat

This workshop will be a combination of theoretical presentations and practical experience; it will start with a presentation lecture about the approach to Calligraforms and how it all started and its influences from other art schools. The practical part will be producing an artwork based on calligraphic letterforms, by drawing, painting or collage.

No previous knowledge in Arabic or calligraphy is required here as participants will purely approach letter forms as an abstract shapes.

Date: Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20, 2019
Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Price: $180 members/$220 non-members, plus $5 materials fee
Level: Beginner and all levels
Location: SVA Annex, 214 E. 21st Street (between 2nd/3rd Ave), Room 703A

 
 
 
 

MATERIALS LIST

  • 3 mat boards size 11x17 or A3

  • various colored papers like canson. black, red, yellow, blue, green (we will
    be cutting them and working on them directly; we will share colors with each
    other, so don’t worry if you don’t have them all)

  • 3 sheets 11x17 beige or tan hand made paper, ideally with hairs and/or
    particles

  • acrylic colors and acrylic inks (black, red, yellow, blue, green - we will share
    so bring what you have)

  • black ink

  • brushes

  • scissors

  • x-acto

  • pencil and eraser

  • ruler

  • paper glue or glue stick

  • paper towels or wipes

  • 11x17 or A3 tracing paper

  • any supplies you love to have

  • 10mm and 15mm Poster pens

Calligraphy mail order suppliers have everything and are reliable and fast: Paper & Ink Arts or John Neal Books. Basic supplies can be found locally at Dick Blick and Da Vinci.

INSTRUCTOR

Wissam Shawkat was born in Basra, Iraq in 1974. For Shawkat, it was the form of four letters from the Arabic alphabet written across a school blackboard that started him on a journey that has shaped him both in early years and adulthood. He recalls finding peace and patience writing and repeating calligraphic letters on the dusty tiles of a makeshift shelter during a heavy aerial bombardment during the Iraq-Iran war and, spurred on by supportive parents, he became his own tutor. His teen summers were spent lettering for a local sign shop before he began studying for a degree in Civil Engineering at Basra University, graduating in 1996. The life as a Civil Engineer, though, was not his destiny and the point where his affinity for letterforms would wait no longer. In recent years, Shawkat has become known for a new calligraphic style named after him which references several traditional scripts bringing them together with modern design.

He is largely self-taught in the rigorous medium, attaining mastery through book research, visits to various masters, museum and library collections throughout the region. Since 2003 he has been working on a new script named after him (Al Wissam Style) which has become very wide spread and popular among calligraphers and designers in the Arab world.
Letters of Love, his 2011 solo exhibition at Reed Space in New York, introduced a global audience to a series of contemporary compositions. With Monumental 11/11, a 2015 solo exhibition and Inside/Outside, a solo show in 2017, Shawkat visually announced his break with traditional calligraphy and his commitment to instead use letters as a foundation for works of dynamic abstraction. He started “Calligraforms,” an art movement that merges the graphic qualities founded in classic letterforms and the western Abstraction and Cubism.

Wissam Shawkat is based in Dubai, where he is engaged full time as an artist, designer, and Arabic type designer. His work is regularly featured in books on Arabic calligraphy and typography, included in museum exhibitions, and acquired by private collectors.