Sara Plumbly, Head of Islamic & Indian Art at Christie’s London, discusses the breadth of Islamic calligraphy.
For Muslims, the Qur’an constitutes the very word of God. As Sara Plumbly, Head of Islamic & Indian Art at Christie’s London, explains, the imperative to clearly and elegantly transcribe these words has made calligraphy the ‘oldest and most revered of the arts of Islam’. According to some, indeed, calligraphy is considered ‘the epitome of Islamic art’.
Soraya Syed is a classically trained calligrapher, artist and filmmaker of growing international renown. She continually works to push the boundaries of what is expected from this traditional art form. She takes the written word off the page into film, dance and VR and has worked with the likes o...
London’s V&A has one of the world’s finest collections of Islamic art from the Middle East. Among its 10,000 objects are the Ardabil Carpet made in 16th-century Iran, one of the largest and finest carpets in existence, and an exquisite rock crystal ewer from 11th-century Egypt. From the summe...
Zarah Hussain’s sculptural installation Numina was commissioned by the Barbican and installed in the Centre's foyers from 1 October 2016 - 25 January 2017.
Blurring the boundaries between science and spirituality, Islamic geometry is traditionally drawn by hand with a ruler and pen, using mathe...
