A first encounter with an Ahmed Moustafa painting comes as quite a surprise. The colours and the configurations of the letters, inspired by the meaning of the words embedded within them, give abstract pictorial form to the textual content. Thus, without even reading the words in their entirety, can you, the viewer, connect with it on an emotional level.
Moustafa trained first at Alexandria University as a figurative painter in the European tradition, graduating in 1966. Even then his paintings were strikingly different from those of his contemporaries in Egypt, often imbued with powerful moral message. He left for London in 1974 to attend the Central School of Art and Design to study advanced printmaking. This, he says, was the turning point in his life. At that time few artists in Egypt were incorporating calligraphy into their paintings. Conversely, it was in London that his interest in it blossomed. He went on to study the science of letters, researching the khatt al-mansub (proportional script) of the 10th century Abbasid calligrapher Ibn Muqla, and in 1989 received his PhD from St Martin's College of Art and Design.
As a painter concerned with shape and form, his research focus was to uncover the exact geometric grid underlying Ibn Muqla's script. It took him 11 years to achieve this, and this journey was to have a profound effect on his art. He had rediscovered his Islamic roots, and emerged convinced that innovation in art and the devotional practice of Islamic art are not irreconcilable.
Fusing his training as a painter, scribe and scholar, his paintings from that period onwards incorporate sections from the Holy Qur'an or from early Islamic texts, visualised through colour and form to create complex images that can be appreciated at once on several different levels- from the precise content of text to the abstract composition of the words and colours. Here if ever, is an artist with a message, and one equipped with the visual language for it to find expression. Through the course of his studies and by bringing his technique to the peak of refinement, he has developed an inimitable style which is distinctly his alone. There are many artists today working with letters, though his paintings are distinctly different, informed as they are by an intrinsic geometric logic.
Despite his undoubted skill, Moustafa remains a modest man. When asked how about his technique, in particular how he manages to produce the startling foreshortening of letterforms that characterise his work, he patiently explains the process. Starting by writing out the texts, he produces three dimensional models from which he produces sketches from different viewpoints. Ever the craftsman and without the aid of computer technology, the results are all the more stunning once one understands the method.
His work has been well-received. In 1997, a painting by him was given by Queen Elizabeth to Pakistan as a gift to mark its 50th anniversary. The following year he became the first Muslim artist to stage an exhibition at the Vatican. Indeed, his attitude, expressed through his art which reconciles his deep understanding of Islam with Western techniques and theories of composition and colour, made him a perfect candidate for a bridging of cultures.
Amongst collectors Moustafa’s work is hot property, with buyers as far-flung as from the UK, the Gulf States and the Indian subcontinent. He has had numerous personal and corporate commissions to produce artwork for a wide variety of people and places. This year his work reached an even wider audience and made its mark on the international auction market. On 24 May in Dubai, Christie’s held its first auction to contain a section dedicated especially to contemporary Arab Art. The top two paintings in this section were both by Ahmed Moustafa, entitled Orbits of Praise (2002) and Where The Two Oceans Meet (2001). First one and then the other broke the auction records for artworks by Arab artists, selling for US$240,000 and US$284,000 respectively. His works were exhibited in the London office and then in Dubai. The reaction of visitors in both locations was extraordinary to watch: they were quite unprepared for their sheer power, with each painting being almost 2 metres long.
The exact date of the next Christie’s auction in Dubai is not yet confirmed, but will take place in January or February 2007, preceded by several days of exhibition. Already confirmed is at least one important piece by Ahmed Moustafa, Expending in God’s Cause (1994). Quite different in mood from the other two, the musical quality of the words is most apparent in this composition. With an estimate of US$100,000-120,000, it promises to be one of the highlights of the exhibition, so be sure not to miss it.
