An exhibition of calligraphic works of Ustad Gohar Qalam is on affectation at the Sanat gallery. Qalam's apprentice Muzzumil Raheel is curating the show. PHOTO: COURTESY SANAT GALLERY
KARACHI: Calligraphy is not aloof admirable handwriting. It is a anatomy of art with its own geometry and accommodation which accept acquired over decades, Muzzumil Raheel told The Express Tribune.
Raheel is curating the exhibition of Ustad Khurshid Alam Gohar Qalam's calligraphic works at the Sanat Gallery. Qalam lives in Lahore area he teaches at the National College of Arts.
The works comprise Quranic verses in Arabic and the balladry of Khwaja Hafiz Shirazi and Allama Iqbal in Persian and Urdu. Raheel's words do amends to Qalam's calligraphy. All his works arise to be advised on set proportions.
Qalam's inscription is one of a kind. It appears so simple with atramentous ink imprinted on paper, yet actual powerful. In one of the masterpieces, the 'Bismillah' ballad of the Quran was skilfully rendered on cardboard in bristles altered styles. The adorableness of the styles was brought out as anniversary appearance was discernable and adorable to attending at.
The artist's abstruse inclinations arise to apparent through such works. His works are like a adventure of the abstruse who aspires for a abutment with the admired Divine source: appropriately the title, 'Transcendence'. One accurate assignment was arresting in this regard. It was a annular arrangement and there was a focal point. This focal point evokes the abstraction of a Divine antecedent in the viewer's apperception as aggregate seems to arise from and assemble on it.
Using a aggregate of the Persian Shikasti and the Nastaliq styles, Qalam rendered Iqbal's balladry in Persian. There were accelerated acclamation which were the adorableness of the artwork. It amazes the eyewitness to see that article was created in such marvellous appearance that it was quick yet so perfect. The works admonish one of the perfection, or 'kamal', of God, Who bestows allotment of His attributes on His called few.
Talking about calligraphy, artisan and arcade administrator Azanat Mansoor said that bodies don't affliction what is accounting in a calligraphic piece. "Usually, they appetite pieces whose paper's colour matches with the curtains of their cartoon rooms," she said. "Gohar Qalam was my abecedary at NCA and he would aloof address admirable verses while sitting idle." "Ustad ji is a apprehensive man," said Raheel, who has been a apprentice of Qalam. "What makes him different is that he shares everything. Usually, artists adopt to actualize art in clandestineness because they don't appetite bodies to apprentice how they do it. Ustad ji is not like added ustads. He has accounting books about the skill."
"It is sad that we, as Urdu readers, can apprehend Ustad ji's works but can't accept it," he said. "This appearance is abreast art. And this appearance is unique. Ustad ji's geometry has acquired with accomplishment and years of practice. Calligraphy is an academy in itself and has its own proportions." The appearance will abide till November 5.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2014.
Title : Beyond words: Ustad Gohar Qalam’s calligraphy on affectation at Sanat
Description : An exhibition of calligraphic works of Ustad Gohar Qalam is on affectation at the Sanat gallery. Qalam's apprentice Muzzumil Rahee...