Exhibitions 43 MORE THAN WORDS


Te beauty that is elegantly- created calligraphy usually revolves around script that clings closely to the traditional requirements of textbook depiction of correct shape and clarity. In both Asia and the Middle East, calligraphy was considered not just a sophisticated art form, but often the most refined of them all, whether it involved ‘standard’ script or the flights of creative fancy which both Middle Eastern and Asian cultures achieved. Tese creative achievements have been so high that calligraphy is held in greater esteem than either painting or sculpture. Tis show comprises some


75 works from the museum’s own collection and loans from the outside. It is an excellent example of an academic how-did-they-do-that exhibition, complete with a wide range of calligraphies accompanied by examples almost all of the writing tools and accoutrements needed to create these works of art. In the West, calligraphy


infers the creation of perfect lettering in a wide variety of styles, ofttimes with elaborations in the form of flourishes or dramatic swirls at the beginning or ends of words. Perfect or standard is common throughout the Middle East and East Asia without these added decorations, but two categories of script, however,


that beautifully lend themselves to inventive calligraphy are Arabic and Chinese. Arabic was the script used in the Ottoman Empire, Persia and in Mughal India, an empire that also included the native Hindi and other forms of Sanskrit. Te perfection of Arabic script was considered the apogee of the arts because of its immediate association with the Qur’an and there are some remarkable examples in the collection dating mainly from the sixteenth century. More often than not, they are within delicately painted floral borders, such as the calligrapher Mir ‘Ali al Sultani’s pages from the Muraqqa Gulshan created for Emperor Jahangir. However, there is a profound exception here – the folio pages from a 9th- or 10th-century Qu’ran in Kufic script, that bold angular style normally found in Egypt. Unlike any other style of Arabic script, it is unapologetically masculine and boldly emphasises the strength of the religious text itself. Te Turkish sultans, Persian


shahs, and Mughal emperors used as their seals as a beautifully contorted combination of letters in swirls, strong verticals and tightly compacted script called a tughra. It included the name, titles and honours and is


probably the most inventive use of Arabic script seen anywhere. Te one example in this exhibition is emblazoned on a 19th- century pen case. Chinese script has a long


history of evolution, beginning probably in the early second millennium BC and over this long history, it has been used in Korea, Japan and in Vietnam as the script used in all ranges of documents. Te Chinese language itself was frequently absorbed, such as in Japan and Korea. For a linguistic example,men is the Chinese word for ‘gate’, mon in Japanese and mun in Korean. Te earliest form of written Chinese script is the one carved on Neolithic pieces of bone and is usually known as oracle bone script. It is single characters of rudimentary form, such as seen on the Shang dynasty (1500-1045 BC) oracle bone in the exhibition. Te other styles include clerical script, codified under the first emperor of China, Shihuangdi, a simplified ‘open’ form; seal script, second century, of strongly angled strokes suitable for square seals of several characters. Clerical or standard script came soon afterwards and it is the traditional form used in literature. From that, with the rise in calligraphy as a superior art form, educated people


Mongol Passport (paiza), China or Mongolia, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), late 1200s/1300s, iron inlaid with silver. Loan: Courtesy of Vahid and Cathy Kooros with the cooperation of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston


began abbreviating the characters somewhat. Running script, also early in date, was a written in an organic flow of ink that abbreviated the standard script, but was still recognisable as such. Cursive script was abbreviated so much that recognising it depended on the reader’s level of literacy and became the precursor of Japanese sosho, also found in the exhibition. Korea adopted these Chinese styles for use at Court, in official documents and records, Buddhist scriptures and literature, but not for much else because the


vast number of Koreans, as elsewhere, were illiterate. King Sejong (r 1418-1450),


an early king of the Confucian Joseon dynasty, decided that his subjects should be literate so that would be able to read royal announcements and laws. He set about this task by creating by 1444 a completely new script called hangul. It is still the dominant script in Korea by creating simple vowels and consonants and combining then into a square format that could be easily read. Tis is the only unique alphabet ever invented at one time.


Tis exhibition is replete


• Until 8 July at Te Nelson- Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas, nelson-atkins.org


with everything from Chinese painting tables, to brushes to pens and calligraphy of almost all of the varieties of Arabic and East Asian styles and many tools of the calligrapher’s art. It really does not matter if one can read Arabic or Chinese script, because if one attends the show to see art and design, reading what is written becomes unimportant after understanding the elegance and beauty that drives this exhibition. Martin Barnes Lorber


CONTEMPORARY: Ab-Anbar, Tehran · Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa / London · Agial Art, Beirut · Aicon, New York · Artside, Seoul · Artwin, Moscow · Aspan, Almaty · Piero Atchugarry, Pueblo Garzón · Athr, Jeddah · Ayyam, Dubai / Beirut · bäckerstrasse4, Vienna · Elba Benítez, Madrid · Marianne Boesky, New York / Aspen · Brandstrup, Oslo · Martin Browne, Sydney · Canvas, Karachi · Carbon 12, Dubai · Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / La Habana · Custot, Dubai · Dastan’s Basement, Tehran · Elmarsa, Tunis / Dubai · Espacio Valverde, Madrid · Experimenter, Kolkata · Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai · Imane Farès, Paris · Henrique Faria, New York / Buenos Aires · Saskia Fernando, Colombo · Selma Feriani, Tunis / London · Galerist, Istanbul · Gallery 1957, Accra · Gazelli Art House, Baku / London · Green Art Gallery, Dubai · Grosvenor, London · Gypsum, Cairo · Hafez, Jeddah · Leila Heller, New York / Dubai · Kristin Hjellegjerde, London · i8, Reykjavik · Ikkan Art, Singapore · Inda, Budapest · Kalfayan, Athens / Thessaloniki · Dorothea van der Koelen, Mainz / Venice · Krinzinger, Vienna · Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai · Lelong & Co, Paris / New York · John Martin, London · Meem, Dubai · Mitterrand, Paris · Victoria Miro, London/ Venice · Mohsen, Tehran · Franco Noero, Turin · Wendi Norris, San Francisco · Officine dell’Immagine, Milan · Gallery One, Ramallah · Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / Singapore / Shanghai · Pace Art + Technology, Menlo Park · Giorgio Persano, Turin · Plutschow, Zurich · Polaris, Paris · Project ArtBeat, Tbilisi · Katharina Maria Raab, Berlin · Revolver, Lima / Buenos Aires · Rosenfeld Porcini, London · Sanat, Karachi · Sanatorium, Istanbul · Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg / Beirut · Sophia Contemporary, London · Michael Sturm, Stuttgart · TAFETA, London · Tanit, Munich / Beirut · Templon, Paris / Brussels · The Third Line, Dubai · Vermelho, Sao Paulo · VOICE Gallery, Marrakech · x-ist, Istanbul · Zawyeh, Ramallah · Zidoun-Bossuyt, Luxembourg · Zilberman, Istanbul / Berlin


MODERN: Agial, Beirut · Akara Art, Mumbai · Albareh, Manama · Aria, Tehran · Le Violon Bleu, Tunis · DAG, New Delhi / Mumbai / New York · Elmarsa, Tunis / Dubai · Grosvenor, London · Hafez, Jeddah · Karim Francis, Cairo · Mark Hachem, New York / Paris / Beirut · Gallery One, Ramallah · Perve, Lisbon · Sanchit, New Delhi · Ubuntu, Cairo · Wadi Finan, Amman


RESIDENTS: 1x1, Dubai [Poonam Jain] · Erti, Tbilisi [Tato Akhalkatsishvili] · Mariane Ibrahim, Seattle [Zohra Opoku] · Kornfeld, Berlin [Farshad Farzankia] · Lakum, Riyadh [Faris Alosaimi] · The Mine, Dubai [Yasuaki Onishi] · Öktem&Aykut, Istanbul [Jennifer İpekel] · Orbital Dago, Bandung [Piko Iabadiou] · Roberto Paradise, San Juan [José Lerma] · The Rooster, Vilnius [Kristina Alisauskaite] · Tyburn, London [Victor Ehikhamenor]


MARCH 2018 ASIAN ART


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