Stylogenyin the style of Hurufiyya Calligraphic Modernism

Rational modernism · 1949–present · Middle East & North Africa

Hurufiyya Calligraphic Modernism

Also known as Hurufiyya, al-Hurufiyya, Calligraphic abstraction, Arab Letterism

A pan-Arab and Iranian modern-art movement, begun by Madiha Omar in the late 1940s, that freed the letters of the Arabic script from text and used them as abstract visual units. Artists of Baghdad's One Dimension Group, the Khartoum School and Iran's calligraphic painters fused Kufic, Thuluth and Nastaʿlīq with modernist abstraction, and the approach migrated into book covers, posters, logotypes and contemporary Arabic type.

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A sample layout drawn from the style’s design choices. Stylogeny doesn’t generate images of this style, out of respect for the people it belongs to.

Use it with care

Arabic letters often carry Qur'anic verses, the names of God or the Prophet and devotional formulas; never use sacred text as decoration on floors, footwear or disposable items, and verify the meaning of every word you set. Credit or collaborate with Arabic-script calligraphers and type designers rather than imitating the script without understanding it.

01

How it works

  • Treat individual Arabic letters as abstract forms (strokes, loops, dots) rather than as words to be read.
  • Build the composition from repeated, overlapping or fragmented letterforms that create rhythm and texture.
  • Combine the proportions of a classical script (Kufic, Thuluth, Nastaʿlīq) with modernist abstraction, gesture and colour fields.
  • Let legibility dissolve deliberately, but keep the ductus and stroke logic of the script recognisable.
  • Work on earth, ink or indigo grounds with a few saturated accents rather than full illuminated polychrome.

Baghdad, Khartoum, Beirut, Tehran and the Arab diaspora

02

Its design choices

From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

Layout & composition
Space & hierarchy
Typography
Colour
Form & shape
Surface & texture
Ornament
Imagery
Medium & production
Tone & intent
Avoids
Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Geometric sans, Modular grid, Straight photography, Gloss & highlights, Ironic & self-aware

Palette

  • #e9dcc0
  • #2a211b
  • #8b3a1e
  • #1f3a5f
  • #c89b3c

Typefaces

  • Kufic

    square and floriated

  • Thuluth

  • Nastaʿlīq

  • Diwani

  • Maghribi

Known for

  • Madiha Omar

    Iraq; calligraphic abstractions exhibited in Washington, 1949

  • Shakir Hassan Al Said and the One Dimension Group

    al-Bu'd al-Wahid, Baghdad, 1971

  • Ibrahim El-Salahi and Ahmed Shibrain

    Khartoum School, from 1960

  • Hossein Zenderoudi

    Iran

  • Dia Azzawi

    Iraq

  • Kamal Boullata

    Palestine

  • Rachid Koraïchi

    Algeria

  • Nja Mahdaoui

    Tunisia

03

Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

Before it

The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.

This styleHurufiyya Calligraphic Modernism1949–present · Middle East & North Africa

After it

The styles that grew out of it.

Alike in its design choices

Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.

04

Real works

Artefacts in museums, libraries and archives that show the style, linked at their source.

05

Sources

  1. Venetia Porter, Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East (British Museum, 2006)
  2. Tate, 'Khartoum School' (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/k/khartoum-school)
  3. Barjeel Art Foundation, Hurufiyya: Art & Identity (Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2017)

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