“The highest point I wanted to reach in plastic art, I found that Arabic calligraphy had preceded me a long time ago.” A famous saying by the famous Spanish plastic artist Pablo Picasso, expressing the plastic aesthetics of Arabic calligraphy. It is the same saying that the Egyptian plastic calligrapher Ahmed believes in. Fahd, which he translates practically through his own artistic paintings, into abstract formations that force the recipient’s eye to stop in front of them and contemplate the magnificence of Arabic calligraphy and its aesthetics.
In his current exhibition, which is hosted by the Saad Zaghloul Cultural Center in Cairo, and will continue until the ninth of next September, the forty-year-old artist consolidates his abstract vision of Arabic calligraphy, presenting to the public examples of calligraphy and the art of cursive art concerned with the aesthetics of alphabets and employing them in artistic painting to carry identity and a traditional touch, relying on On the Arabic letter as a formative word that goes beyond the usual explicit form of the letters, while paying attention to their aesthetics, geometry, and colors.
The Egyptian calligrapher told Asharq Al-Awsat: “I work as a professor at the Institute of Arabic Calligraphy in Cairo. Although the institute is interested in the classical style of calligraphy, I believe that the Arabic letter carries great aesthetic value, and I believe in the importance of the recipient seeing and touching the aesthetic value of the Arabic letter. The idea of beauty is not only in the written text, but rather the alphabets have an aesthetic value in themselves, which is what I try to do. I've been working hard on it for years. Although there are many visual artists who are interested in Arabic calligraphy, I see that their interest is focused on form only, without knowledge of the rules and arts of Arabic calligraphy.”
Fahd’s works are characterized by a number of artistic features. He always tries to pay attention to the geometry of the calligraphy and the aesthetics of the letters, whether they are flowing or interfering with each other, while giving symbolic and abstract connotations to his paintings, by giving the letter the freedom of abstract space.
These features complement the style of interest in color, as he says: “I resorted to color as an expressive aspect in my paintings, where I use color to express an idea, in a way that confirms the abstractness of the letter. I also try to direct the recipient’s perspective by relying on hot colors, such as yellow, red, and blue. This is in contrast to the classical style, which is primarily concerned with inks, and does not resort to colors.
Walking through the exhibition’s paintings conveys to the recipient the artist’s abstract vision of the alphabets, his mastery of the rules and arts of Arabic calligraphy, and his ability to create and innovate in this art. Among the paintings appears a painting with the concept of human beings’ need for God - the Almighty - where the idea of yellow letters representing the desert appears, while clouds appear. White and gold dots, indicating the idea of giving and giving. In other paintings, the letters appear in the form of a circle, as a symbolic signification of the universe and existence.
Regarding how he gets inspiration for ideas for paintings, Fahd said: “I always try to inspire a scene or vision around me through letters, indirectly, away from imitating drawings, meaning that I try to abstract the environment around me through the form of letters, as Arabic calligraphy is the head of the school of abstraction.” This is what the Spanish visual artist Pablo Picasso believed.
The Egyptian calligrapher believes that the current spread of abstraction is a trend in the Arab world, but he hopes that the public will understand more broadly the aesthetics of Arabic calligraphy devoid of text, and appreciate letters as an aesthetic value, since calligraphy is the expression of our identity, as Arabs and Muslims.
It is noteworthy that the artist Ahmed Fahd was born in 1976. He studied at the Calligraphy School in 1995, and his participation in the artistic movement began in 2001, where he represented Egypt in more than one cultural and artistic event, and participated in 26 group exhibitions, outside and inside Egypt, and won many awards. International.