Art: Ali Hassan, Calligraphy Virtuoso

Ali Hassan is one of the Arab artists emerging onto the international stage and exhibiting his work in the most important art galleries of the West such as the British Museum and now also the Trajan's Markets in Rome during the calligraphy exhibition open until June 10 where his «Nun Letter» is being shown, one of his virtuoso style calligraphies in which the tradition of Arab writing meets the more avant-garde techniques of visual arts.

Ali Hassan comes from Qatar, where he began studying history at Qatar University. He then continued to specialize in Egypt from where he then widened his horizons travelling in Europe and the United States. «Qatar was very provincial, I struggled a lot, there were no books on calligraphy or any art institutes, so I had to do everything on my own at the start although Qatar has now opened up to different nationalities and the international community has brought to the country awareness regarding the value of art», said Hassan. In Qatar now, 80% of the population is foreign and the Emir has invested very much to build the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha by the famous architect Pei and in 2014 the National Museum of Qatar designed by Jean Nouvel will also be inaugurated.

The creation of the Qatar foundation and these new museums will culturally enrich this country and I expect an exponential growth in Qatar's visual art in the next 10 years«, Hassan explained.

Despite the Royal family's interest for art, in Qatar art history is not a compulsory subject at school and there is only one university in which it is possible to study art. Of the urgent changes necessary in the country's art scene, Hassan thinks the opening of private art galleries is fundamental.

«Public galleries exhibit the works of good and not so good artists, there's no quality control or interest, whereas private galleries focus a lot on quality. Their interest is to sell and maintain a good reputation, so they only exhibit the best artists. For this reason I'd like to see more private art galleries in Doha».

One of Ali Hassan’s works

Source: ANSAmed