Exhibition: The Future of Traditions, Writing Pictures: Contemporary Art from the Middle East

The exhibition is collaboratively produced by guest curated by Rose Issa and Bob Annibale and explores three generations of artists, from Iran and the Arab world, from the early pioneers of a vernacular ‘Lettrism’ movement to those incorporating the written word in their works today.

These artists, from different background and styles, take inspiration from their own culture and combine those influences with international aesthetics and concepts. The result is the creation of an alternative and original approach to modernism and contemporary art.

While partly based on the book ‘Signs of Our Times: From Calligraphy to Calligraffiti’, the exhibition adds more artists from the younger generation—artists whose concerns, whether conceptual, socio-political, or simply aesthetic, have found their own modes of expression, thus contributing to world art.

From the 37 artists represented here, only a very few are calligraphers. The variety of their vocabularies of art, whether painting or sculpting the words, offers a fresh perspective on the creativity that the region has inspired.

A selection of rare, illustrated books and manuscripts from the Special Collections SOAS Library and artists books alongside selected pieces from SOAS’s wider Collections are also included in this exhibition connecting the old with the new.

A catalogue ‘The Future of Traditions - Writings Pictures: Contemporary Art from the Middle East’ has been produced and is available from the SOAS Bookshop in the Brunei Gallery, SOAS.