Spiritual joy is all that Iranian artists have: calligrapher

He has won awards at several Iranian calligraphy festivals and won first prize in the Shekasteh-Nastaliq style at the First Annual Islamic World Calligraphy Festival. 

Forughi also won first prize in the Nastaliq and Shekasteh-Nastaliq styles at a calligraphy competition in Turkey organized by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture.

Forughi studied under master calligrapher Gholamhossein Amirkhani in Tehran and currently teaches Naskh, Sols, Shekasteh-Nastaliq, and Nastaliq styles at the Mashhad Chapter of the Iranian Calligraphers Association.

His numerous works include the Holy Quran, Mafatih-ul-Jinan (Keys to Paradise), and Sahifeh Sajjadieh (the collection of prayers attributed to Imam Sajjad {AS}) in Naskh, the Divan of Hafez in Nastaliq, and exquisite inscriptions in the Sols style.

He also spent three years inscribing the Holy Quran in the Naskh Neiriz style, which is his outstanding work.

Besides Naskh Neiriz, there are four other versions of the Naskh style in the Islamic world, he explained, saying that two of them, the Osmani and Arabi styles, are used outside of Iran and the other two, the Azari and Tabriz styles, are commonly used in Iran.

He considers Naskh Neiriz to be the most delicate style, adding that Nastaliq is rooted in Naskh Neiriz.

He went on to say that he has not participated in Iranian festivals for three years because he believes works are not judged fairly at these events.

“We should be faithful to traditions in art. However, we are duty bound to create innovative methods in art in order to be warmly welcomed by future generations,” he opined.

He also believes that an artist should embrace criticism in order to make progress.

Although art is a treasure, artists do not earn much money in Iran; all they have is the spiritual joy of creating art, he said in conclusion.

NM/HG

End

MNA