Holy Writ

Peter HallidayGreat calligraphy exhibitions in superb venues don’t come around very often. The last one, in my very biased view, was the terrific Calligraphy Today exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum Museum in Cambridge which I co-curated with the Keeper of Manuscripts and Printed Books, Dr Stella Panayotova. This was an exhibition of selected pieces from the permanent collection of contemporary calligraphy that I put together for the museum. I was delighted to see that a piece from that collection was on display at the recent Holy Writ exhibition at Lichfield Cathedral. The artwork was Peter Halliday’s wonderful Burning Bush (right).

And Holy Writ was the latest great calligraphy exhibition in a superb venue – Lichfield Cathedral. The exhibition has now closed, but it was so fantastic that I thought it worthwhile putting up some of the images as a blogpost here. The hugely creative calligrapher Peter Halliday was the curator of this exhibition, and he brought together manuscripts and contemporary calligraphy from all three faiths based on Abraham – Islam, Jewish and Christian.

Michelle Brown nd Peter HallidayProfessor Michelle Brown was part of the associated activities connected with the exhibition and gave one of her superb lectures on the Lichfield Psalter, and here she is with Peter with another of his exhibition artworks on the right.

 

 

 

Stephen Raw and 'Abraham'Stephen Raw’s powerful artwork of the word ‘Abraham’ in its Western, Hebrew and Arabic scripts was used as the image for the exhibition. This picture of Stephen at the side of his work gives an indication of size.

 

 

Mustafa Ja'farMustafa Ja'farReligious artworks from all three faiths were included, and, although very simple, this is a stunning piece by Mustafa Ja’far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mustafa, Peter and EwanMustafa (left on photo on the right) was at the exhibition on the same day as Professor Ewan Clayton MBE (right) – gifted calligrapher and Craft Skills Champion in 2013 – and another exhibitor in the exhibition.

Fouad Kouichi Honda

 

 

Another striking piece was by Fouad Kouichi Honda, where strong calligraphy forms the decoration and the message.

 

 

 

 

St John's BiblePart of the St John’s Bible, master-minded by Donald Jackson, was also on display, showing that scribes and illuminators can create modern artworks based on historical techniques.