Wissam Shawkat – Redefining Arabic Calligraphy

Wissam Shawkat, who fell under the spell of Arabic letters on a blackboard at the age of a boy and later became an internationally acclaimed calligrapher and artist. This man, famous for his innovative calligraphic style, “Al Wissam,” puts traditional Arabic scripts and modern graphic design together like a puzzle. His work breaks cultural barriers. He tests to the extreme boundaries of what is possible with calligraphy, and that is why he is one of the most sought-after artists of the last decade.

Self-taught from Basra, Iraq, Wissam Shawkat of Dubai is an artist whose mastery over Arabic calligraphy has turned it into an art form that can be quite modern yet eternal. His works for large international companies like Tiffany & Co. and Chopard speak to his designs’ wide appeal, and his style has had him become almost a household name in this art and design world. Shawkat’s journey began in simple ways. During the Iraq-Iran war, he found comfort in writing and perfecting his calligraphy on dusty tiles made up of a makeshift shelter. He realises that his parents saw his talent and encouraged him to hone this skill, and Shawkat then becomes his own best tutor.

Nothing is easy in the journey of making someone a great artist. Shawkat graduated in 1996 from Basra University with his professional certificate in Civil Engineering. A stable career as an engineer waited for him, but Shawkat could not ignore the deep passion he felt for calligraphy that came with him through those hot teenage summer letters under the signboard of a shop where he used to work. He spent his summers designing and perfecting his skills while learning the balance between precision and creativity. It finally dawned upon him that his calling was in art and not in engineering.

He has created a new style of calligraphy, known as Al Wissam in the recent years – a hybridization of traditional Arabic scripts used – be it Sunbuli, Jali Diwani, Eastern Kufic, and Thuluth – and modernist design integration. It results in a style once bold, graphic and yet unmistakably contemporary, still deeply rooted in the rich legacy of Arabic calligraphy. Shawkat’s art surpasses simple tradition in that it represents a coming together of old and new, forcing the conception of calligraphy. His handmade paper with reed pens and traditional inks along with a decidedly modern sensibility provoke the viewer to question what Arabic letterforms need be. Liberation characterizes his work because he finds movement within the letters rather than hem it in to literalism.

Wissam Shawkat has actually coined the term Calligraform for that abstract adaptation of the Arabic calligraphy he uses. It focuses on the form and shape of the lettering, dwelling more on the graphic value than on its linguistic significance. For example, the sharp tail of the Arabic letter “ha” can be isolated and reproduced at various angles, turning it into an eye-catching visual element. Shawkat’s work is inspired by such styles and trends of Turkish calligraphy, Bauhaus, Geometric Abstraction, Futurism, and Cubism. His great ability to interpret these artistic trends in Arabic calligraphy makes it possible for him to create a visual language that is totally free from cultural prejudices. Shawkat does not pretend at all to preserve tradition; he reorders it in modern terms.

In the last ten years, Wissam Shawkat’s works spread globally. Beside high-fashion works, Shawkat prints and original pieces can be bought online for home through his shop so that people could take with them a part of his innovative calligraphic art with them. He takes up corporate as well as personal projects, showing how universal his designs are. Being called a “rule-breaker” for his innovative techniques does not come easily to Shawkat. Shawkat’s art invites us to rethink not only what calligraphy can be but what art can achieve when it defies tradition.