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What is calligraphy? I
asked several people and got a number of answers: “look like a
cryptic crossword,” “it’s a piece of objective art,”
“it’s a mystical painting.” There was no consensus.
Perhaps calligraphy is
all the above statements – an art which makes one feel centred;
the creation of which leads to inner growth and maturity. The
Chinese raked it an arat above painting – over 2000 years ago,
and the Persian painters elevated it to a semi-mystical status in
Islamic painting.
The dictionary meaning of
calligraphy is the art of decorative handwriting. The literal
translation from Greek means beautiful handwriting – a
communication of ideas aesthetically. The aesthetics of graphics at
the cost of clarity if necessary. To my mind it is to the eyes what
music is to the ears and as someone put it – “Calligraphy
is to writing what eloquence is to speech.”
Over the centuries
calligraphy decorated books and manuscripts, buildings, wall panels
and works of art – paintings and murals. In recent years
calligraphy has also been adapted to textiles.
Dress designers have used
calligraphy to perpetuate messages in a simple language. The aim is
social reformation. One such message reads ‘Dope is evil’.
In India as well
designers have employed it as a medium of communication. They have
used it to express their thoughts, their ideas. Calligraphy today is
being used on textiles, fabrics, ready to wear clothes and
accessories. Satya Paul, a leading Indian designer compared in the
international design world with Zandra Rhodes, Yogi Yamamot, Issey
Miyaki, Ralph Lauren, began his work in 1966 and has touched the
nerve chord of designing – creating a sensation.
“Designing” he
says “ is a medium of expression involving the mind and the
heart. Calligraphy is an intense graphic art. Every stroke and
letter has a graphic beauty and form. His calligraphic designer
sarees and fabrics area rage worldwide. Using this art form with
tremendous flair and beauty his work is intriguing and interesting, a
visual delight.
He began with the idea
that clothes should become living experience of an inner growth and
journey.” For him art and fashion have gone hand in hand and he
has elevated calligraphy from the platform of art and aesthetics to
the platform of objective art. Perhaps the balance of art and
fashion is beginning now.
The emergence of
calligraphy is like an economy chart from pictograms to ideograms to
phonograms. From the human desire to express, grew the need to give
sound a structure and shape. Picture writing was the first step in
the long evolutionary process which ended in the formation of the
alphabet. The script of the world in their earliest forms date as
far back as 20000 B.C. when they were scratched or painted on rock,
wood or bone. However modern calligraphy is done with a broad edged,
square cut pen held art angle. This produces thick descending
diagonals and thin ascending diagonals known as curves.
How did man first create
calligraphy? What instruments did he use? For centuries the
European have used the quill as a writing tool. The quill has such
finesse and is so flexible that it responds to the slightest touch.
Quills are made from the feathers of the primary flight of swans,
turkeys or geese for large writing; the duck and raven for normal
writing; and crows for fine work.
The Chinese artist used
the same brush for painting and calligraphy. It consisted of a
wooden or bamboo handle with bristles of animal hair arranged to form
an extremely fine point. Their writing was mainly black – the
ink made of pine root and glue. In many cases these inscriptions
consisted of a poem along with a description of the circumstances
under which the painting was created.
In Islam along with
illustrations of flowers, artists used geometric patterns. The human
artist formed the lettering initially with a brush and then called a
craftsman to cut it. This style reflects the intricacy of the use of
chisel more than the writing. The chisel starts at the surface and
goes into the material to form a deeper channel of the main stroke.
The best example is the quadrate at the foot of the Emperor Tryans
Column in Rome made in A.D. 114.
There is an architectural
geometrical quality within the quadrata style accounting for the
harmony created when lettering is used on stone. The dimensions and
proportions of height and width are of great importance – the
best example of this is the Taj Mahal where the Holy Koran is written
all along the front portal.
When adapted to textiles
in India calligraphy ahs been used in several forms. The Roma, the
Hindi or Sanskrit, the Persian, the Chinese, the geometrical and the
numerical patterns have been used to give the fabric a unique touch.
The designer sarees by Satya Paul have become a rage in the cities.
There is a fusion of art and the creation of a new trend is on the
horizon.
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