LAHORE: A national exhibition of calligraphy in collaboration with Pakistan Calligraphy Artists Guild opened at Alhamra Art Gallery, The Mall, on Monday.

A good number of art enthusiasts came to see the show held to celebrate the holy month of Ramazan.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Punjab University’s College of Art and Design former principal Hassan Shahnawaz Zaidi.

Some 90 artists from different cities of the country put on display around 200 works.

Artists from D I Khan, Islamabad, Attock, Karachi, Quetta and Gujranwala participated in the event.

The artists used all five ‘khats’ – ‘sulus’, ‘nastaleeq’, ‘naskh’, ‘kufi’ and ‘deewani’ - in their works.

The salient feature of the art show was some masterpieces by maestros such as Sadequain, Sufi Khurshid Alam Khurshid Raqam and Abdul Wahid Nadirul Kalam. Among the prominent names who exhibited their works were Irfan Ahmed Khan, Khurshid Alam Gohar Qalam, Shafique Farooqi, Abdul Wajid Yaqoot Raqam and Irfan Qureshi.

The exhibition was a nice amalgamation of contemporary, traditional and painterly calligraphy art. An art piece by a veteran artist, Muhmmad Ummar, needs special mention who wrote Quranic verses with millet and peel of sugarcane.

Mr Ummar told Dawn that he was also writing the Holy Quran with dry rose petals and by now he had written five ‘siparas’. He said writing the Holy Quran with rose petals was not easy and it would take at least five to seven years to complete.

An art lover, Tariq Rehman, expressed joy at the fact that the Lahore Arts Council organised calligraphy exhibition after a long time.

“Earlier, the Punjab Council of Arts used to organise calligraphy exhibition using the venue of Lahore Arts Council,” Rehman added.

The exhibition will continue till July 25.

Published in Dawn, July 8th , 2014