617

Forming words constitute a powerful source of inspiration.’67 Word pictures have not only been the domain of Middle Eastern artists but of Western artists Georges Braque, Piet Mondrian and others, including Antoni Tapies, who was to have a profound effect on Shakir Hassan al Said, and Paul Klee, whose work clearly demonstrates the influence that the Arabic script had on him during his time in Tunisia. However, what is striking in the works of the Middle Eastern artists who use text is not only the varied and imaginative manner in which they use it but also the way in which they employ it to demonstrate their love of literature and their preoccupation with current political events.68 In addition, a new genre is emerging, books echoing the French tradition of the 'livres d’artiste’, pioneered among the Middle Eastern artists by Etel Adnan, which can also be seen as a resurgence of the arts of the book that were once so strong a feature of Islamic art in Iraq, Iran and Central Asia.69

Figural representation

While there are increasing numbers of artists from across the Middle East representing the human image, the continued popularity of script in some of the more conservative parts of the region can in certain cases be attributed to the unease that continues to prevail around the issue of figural representation in Islam. It is worth briefly considering how the strictures against representa tion were handled in such specific cases as, for example, the foundation of the School of Fine Arts in Egypt by Prince Ytisuf Kamal in 1908, and discussions around the permissibility of photography.

As mentioned above, Prince Kamal needed to secure the approval of a leading cleric in order to be able to open the School of Art and to allow figural painting to take place there. In an article entitled 'Pictures and sculptures and their benefits and justification’, the reformist Shaykh Muliammad 'Abduh (d. 1905), writing in 1903, went to the heart of the vexed issue about whether it was lawful to have figural representation in Islam.

As for the Prophet’s saying: 'Those who will be most tormented on Judgment Day are the image makers’, it seems to be that since it was spoken in the age of idolatry, when images were used for distraction or were attributed with magical powers, the artist was rightfully considered responsible for causing

67  Naef, L’ecriture, p. 41.

68  This was the theme of the 2006 exhibition, 'Word into art’, curated by V. Porter.

A revised version with a new catalogue Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East Dubai was shown in Dubai in 2008.

69  Marie Genevieve Guesdon and Annie Vernay Nouri (eds.), L’art du livre arabe du manuscript au livre d’artiste (Paris, 2001); N. M. Shabout (ed.), Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi book art (Denton, TX, 2007).