Rania Khallaf interviews Sameh Ismail on his stunning new calligraphic paintings Sameh Ismail is one of the few Arabic calligraphers to represent the new generation in this sacred form of art so beloved by Muslims worldwide. While most calligraphers of the older generation were schooled in the traditional calligraphic art, Ismail, who was born in Cairo in July 1974, studied for two years at the Arabic Calligraphy School in Bab Al-Louk, one of the most distinguished and oldest schools in the region, but then moved to studying graphics at the School of Fine Arts in Zamalek. A year before graduating he was offered the chance of a life time: working with veteran director Youssef Chahine (1926 �ê" 2008) on his film Al-Massir (The Destiny), where most of the events take place in Andaluc��a in Spain. After graduating in 1997, the year The Destiny was released, Ismail continued working for the screen in animation, advertising and designing logos. These experiences have merged to produce an inclination towards introducing calligraphy in a post-modernist form. Ismail was immersed in logo design, and he produced some famous Arabic logos. Meanwhile, he was producing sketches that had nothing to do with logos. "In these sketches calligraphy found freedom in a new dimension; most of them were not even readable. It was then I realized that modern style calligraphy was my real passion," he told the Weekly. Although calligraphy is a pure Islamic and Arab art, it is much more popular in the West than it is in the Arab world, I ask Ismail how this can be explained? Ismail believes that the recent resurgence of interest in contemporary calligraphy only started in Dubai when art dealers and auction houses, including Sotheby's, started to attract today's big names in calligraphy and show their works in international art showrooms. He also believes that 9/11 was another key factor that pushed managers of international art galleries and museums on a step towards rediscovering the arts of the Middle East and unveiling the mysteries of this region. Ismail held his first solo exhibition in 2005. Four more solo exhibitions followed, including one in Abu Dhabi. He has also shown in more than 15 group exhibitions so far. In 2009, Ismail won an art residence in the isolated village of Serrer near Barcelona, Spain. "It was the first time I had travelled to Europe. Instead of visiting Andaluc��a to be introduced to the beauty of the Islamic art there, I spent a month in this beautiful place, all surrounded by forests," he recalls. "It was a good chance to interact with the magnificent environment. And I found out that, if the cultural borders between East and West were demolished, we, artists around the world would find we have almost the same concepts about contemporary art. The result of this art residence is quite unique: he and young photographer Hamdi Reda have successfully pulled off a project which mixes calligraphy with photography. Two months later, he designed the logo of Egypt's mission to the World Tourism Festival in London. "I did a lot of calligraphy pieces �ê�live' at the entrance to the Egyptian booth. The tourists and the festival visitors were overwhelmed by my sketches. Ismail spends eight hours a day in his atelier in Fustat, south Cairo. Before he starts his daily interaction with his calligraphic units he reads or listens to "all kinds" of music for a while. "I like to spend a couple of hours a day all by myself," he says. "And I have recently discovered another passion: classic music, especially Rakhmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov and Bach. There is a strong bond between classic music composition and the phases of composing a painting." Ismail is busy at present working on a calligraphic exhibition that will open on 8 August, a new experience of the art of using wall friction (graphite). The exhibition reflects, he believes, the state of confusion and pressure he has felt over the past months and his hopes of achieving freedom, justice and equality for all Egyptian citizens. The exhibition, which will be held at The Hotel Kempinski in Downtown Cairo with the cooperation of the Zamalek Art Gallery, will be on for six weeks so that admirers of calligraphy and Islamic art will have a chance to enjoy this unusual experience during the holy month of Ramadan.
