Ink-spiring: Calligraphy exhibition captivates art enthusiasts

A Multilingual Calligraphy Exhibition held in the city proved to be enthralling for visitors.

Organised by the Institute of Indo-Islamic Art and Culture, the three-day event showcased the workmanship of several renowned calligraphers and experts from India and abroad.

Calligraphy experts from Sudan, Turkey, Iran, Japan, and other countries joined vernacular experts in holding panel discussions on topics such as calligraphy ethics and aesthetics, the changing face of calligraphy in India, and calligraphy in West Asia.

Workshops were also organised to explore scripts like the Khatt Diwani and Khatt Tulut, besides Arabic and Indian calligraphy styles.

Muqtar Ahmed, the founder of the Institute of Indo-Islamic Art and Culture and a calligrapher himself, said the exhibition aimed to assemble calligraphers to interact and promote their work.

“The exhibition was unique since visitors could witness the beauty of so many calligraphy scripts and styles in one place,” he said.

Narayana Bhattathiri, whose Malayalam calligraphy artwork showcased one of Kumaran Asan’s poems, admitted that there is no culture of calligraphy in Malayalam. “There are very few calligraphers in South India because I think we are more interested in the content, not the art or design,” he said.

Two of Kannada calligrapher Suresh Waghmore’s works featured a stylised depiction of B R Laxman Rao’s poem Amma ninna edeyaaladalli, his favourite, and a Kannada alphabets-based calligraphy he created as he thinks alphabets fade from people’s minds after they pass out of school.