Graduation of 40 calligraphers
Forty calligraphers who received continuous training for a whole week graduated within the activities of the “Love of Pen” (Mahabat Qalam ) Festival for Arab Calligraphy and Decoration, which was launched on the 14th of last month at the Arab Cultural Center in Abu Rummaneh.
The calligraphers were trained in the festival, which is organized by the House of Arabic Calligraphy and Arts Association in cooperation with the Directorate of Culture of Damascus, through two workshops with the aim of strengthening their knowledge in calligraphy and providing them with new skills.
The calligrapher Adham Al-Jaafari, who supervised the training of calligraphers, said in a statement to SANA, “We briefed the male and female trainers in the workshop on the Thuluth calligraphy and how to start writing the line and the methods and stages of completing the painting in addition to providing trainers with knowledge of writing methods and dealing with types of paper and inks from a technical point of view.
In turn, the calligrapher Anwar Hayali, the supervisor of the Nasta’liq calligraphy workshop, noted that the methodology of this calligraphy and the methods of writing the line with the specific measurements for each letter were introduced to achieve proportionality between letters and sentences on the selected line. The workshop included writing Verses from the Holy Quran with letter connections and single letters.
Trainee, Abeer Al-Awdat, considered that learning calligraphy contributes to preserving this heritage art associated with our Arab civilizations and culture, indicating that such workshops help trainers to acquire new skills to reach the stage of creating distinctive visual and aesthetic paintings in calligraphy.
Alaa Al-Din Al-Ghabra, another trainee, noted that the practical workshops in Arabic calligraphy are important for the artist to reach the stage of improvisation in writing an instantaneous painting of calligraphy, in addition to exchanging opinions and experiences between scholars and professors and presenting the workshops’ output to the public.
Muhammad Samir Tahan, Secretary of the Association, pointed out that the festival was held due to the unremitting efforts of the Association’s members and lovers of Arabic calligraphy, including calligraphers and scholars, with the support of the Damascus Culture Directorate and the Arab Cultural Center in Abu Rummaneh. The festival is considered as the first step on a long road to restore the brilliance of the Levantine school of Arab calligraphy and the dissemination of this culture which is linked to our cultural and civilizational identity among the various segments of society.
The Festival continues until the end of this week and includes a symposium on decorative arts and an exhibition of works by young artists in the field of Arabic calligraphy. It also includes two workshops in Naskh script and decorative arts over two days. An exhibition including the products of the four workshops in addition to a virtual exhibition for all participating works from inside and outside Syria will be held next Thursday.
Inas Abdulkareem