Conferences and debates
Index / Activities / Conferences and debates / Lecture on Arabic calligraphy
Lecture on Arabic calligraphy
From September 04, 2012 until September 13, 2012
The Emirati artist and calligrapher Khalid Ali al Jallaf and the professor José Miguel Puerta Vílchez will offer on September 12th and 13th a Tribune titled "Arabic Calligraphy: Jewel in the Crown of the Islamic Art", both in Madrid and in Cordoba.
The event will be conducted by Eduardo López Busquets, Director General of Casa Árabe, and will take place on September 12th at 19.30 in the institution’s Auditorium in Madrid (c/Alcalá, 62) and a day later, at the same time, at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Cordoba (c/Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9).
Khalid Ali Al Jallaf is considered to be the disciple of the great Emirati calligrapher Abdul Qader al-Raes, who encouraged him to pay attention to this art during his adolescence, and he also learnt from two other great masters: the Egyptian Muhammad Hamman and the Iraqi Nizar al-Dawri. Khalid Ali Al Jallaf is chief editor of the magazine Huruf Arabiya (Arabic Letters), has a privileged position to transmit the importance of Arabic calligraphy within the Islamic Art context, its evolution as one of the Arab-Muslim cultures, as well as the existence of different schools which have been well defined through History and which have their marks on contemporary calligraphy. The lecture will explain the calligraphy’s elevation to the category of art within the Islamic culture and will go through the different types of the existing letters and will also pay special attention to the different uses of calligraphy and, most of all, in the architecture field.
Jose Miguel Puerta Vílchez, Islamic art expert and a specialist on both the architecture and art of the Alhambra, will illustrate those calligraphy architectural uses with the audiovisual screening of Sentir La Alambra [Feeling the Alhambra]. He is the author of the piece and it will be watched as the closure of the speech.
This visual artist and calligrapher, born and living in Dubai (UAE), has taken part in exhibitions in Arab countries, Europe and Asia representing the Emirates, and has been awarded with different prizes in international calligraphy competitions. Nowadays, he is also chief editor of the magazine Huruf Arabiya, a quarterly publication specialized on the calligraphy world. As part of his regular activity, he gives lectures to spread the value of Arabic calligraphy, a matter which has captured his attention since his childhood, guiding him to follow the steps of the great masters on Kufic calligraphy.
He holds a Ph. D. in Arabic Philology and is professor of Art Theory, Muslim Art History and Islamic Architecture at the University of Granada, and he is also the author of the following books: Los códigos de utopía de la Alhambra de Granada (Granada, 1990), Historia del pensamiento estético árabe (Madrid, 1997), La aventura del Cálamo. Historia, formas y artistas de la caligrafía árabe (Granada, 2007), Leer la Alhambra (Granada, 2010) and La poética del agua en el islam (Gijon, 2011). He has translated into Spanish the work of Averroes, Gada al-Samman or Salah nazi, among others, and he has also published in Arabic press texts by Federico García Lorca, Miguel Hernández, Luis García Montero, Juan Goytisolo or Antonio Muñoz Molina. Together with Professor Jorge Lirola Delgado, since 2000 he also directs the edition and publication of the Enciclopiea of Andalusi Culture, edited by Foundation Ibn Tufayl.
Khalid Ali Al Jallaf is considered to be the disciple of the great Emirati calligrapher Abdul Qader al-Raes, who encouraged him to pay attention to this art during his adolescence, and he also learnt from two other great masters: the Egyptian Muhammad Hamman and the Iraqi Nizar al-Dawri. Khalid Ali Al Jallaf is chief editor of the magazine Huruf Arabiya (Arabic Letters), has a privileged position to transmit the importance of Arabic calligraphy within the Islamic Art context, its evolution as one of the Arab-Muslim cultures, as well as the existence of different schools which have been well defined through History and which have their marks on contemporary calligraphy. The lecture will explain the calligraphy’s elevation to the category of art within the Islamic culture and will go through the different types of the existing letters and will also pay special attention to the different uses of calligraphy and, most of all, in the architecture field.
Jose Miguel Puerta Vílchez, Islamic art expert and a specialist on both the architecture and art of the Alhambra, will illustrate those calligraphy architectural uses with the audiovisual screening of Sentir La Alambra [Feeling the Alhambra]. He is the author of the piece and it will be watched as the closure of the speech.
Khalid Ali al Jallaf
This visual artist and calligrapher, born and living in Dubai (UAE), has taken part in exhibitions in Arab countries, Europe and Asia representing the Emirates, and has been awarded with different prizes in international calligraphy competitions. Nowadays, he is also chief editor of the magazine Huruf Arabiya, a quarterly publication specialized on the calligraphy world. As part of his regular activity, he gives lectures to spread the value of Arabic calligraphy, a matter which has captured his attention since his childhood, guiding him to follow the steps of the great masters on Kufic calligraphy.
José Miguel Puerta Vílchez
He holds a Ph. D. in Arabic Philology and is professor of Art Theory, Muslim Art History and Islamic Architecture at the University of Granada, and he is also the author of the following books: Los códigos de utopía de la Alhambra de Granada (Granada, 1990), Historia del pensamiento estético árabe (Madrid, 1997), La aventura del Cálamo. Historia, formas y artistas de la caligrafía árabe (Granada, 2007), Leer la Alhambra (Granada, 2010) and La poética del agua en el islam (Gijon, 2011). He has translated into Spanish the work of Averroes, Gada al-Samman or Salah nazi, among others, and he has also published in Arabic press texts by Federico García Lorca, Miguel Hernández, Luis García Montero, Juan Goytisolo or Antonio Muñoz Molina. Together with Professor Jorge Lirola Delgado, since 2000 he also directs the edition and publication of the Enciclopiea of Andalusi Culture, edited by Foundation Ibn Tufayl.
