The Calligraphy of Shibrain

The Calligraphy of Shibrain - The School of Khartoum

The origin of the name
The nature of the work
The activities starting from 1960 up to now

From time to time I come through different topics about contemporary art in Sudan. And it is true sometimes I find the interpretation likely to give a general view, but not telling the whole story of the School of Khartoum, and how did it come to constitute a school of aesthetical importance to the visual culture of Sudan in the last fifty years of the 20th century. I remember on many occasions I wrote many articles giving a definitive interpretation, but most of these articles were written in Arabic to local and Arabic newspapers and Arabic magazines. Sometimes I read art critics, and many of them give opinions about the up-bringing of the School of Khartoum. And it didn’t come to my mind to contradict those opinions, neither on the concept nor in the historical fact about the exact date of the School of Khartoum. And because the historical facts are very essential now here, I find myself compelled to tell in this very short introduction the origin of the name, the visual concept and the span of time of continuity. And I say up to 1960, our visual art in Sudan was on the traditional European schools and with the same academic styles and technical methods. By 1960 and when I came from abroad after finishing my specialization in graphic design, I had been appointed as a lecturer in the College of Fine and Applied Art of the University of Science and Technology (previously Khartoum Technical Institute). And, after a short time, I asked myself, if design constitutes its measures and dimensions on an international common theory, then where is the cultural impact for this theory. And we know every art by itself is a visual language to tell about the society, about its ethical and aesthetical values. And if this is true, then we have to originate our own art through our own interpretation and tell in full the conceptual qualities of our vision. And that was what has happened. Then I started to tackle through my daily graphic, through the Arabic calligraphy giving richest treatments based on an abstract actuation with the Arabic letter. The experiment came to be very exciting and more to my inner feeling and impressions, for the art I am looking for. This was the very original start as a Sudanese graphic designer considering the national culture as the proper base to create a kind of art that I can tell in certainty. This will be a new start to create a new Sudanese plastic art and design. I went through these experiences for so many years working and exhibiting my works here in Khartoum or abroad. Up to this moment I didn’t give any name to these visual experiences, but it happened that an artist from British Guiana (now Guyana), Dennis Williams, who taught in the Central School of Art in London up to 1955, then came here as a lecturer in graphic design. Then later he travelled to Nigeria and has been appointed as a lecturer in one of the Nigerian universities. About 1962 Mr. Ulli Beier, the German artist who spent more than 20 years in Nigeria, visited Khartoum. One of the most important centres to him was the College of Fine and Applied Art, and, through his curious looking and search through Sudanese art, he came across my abstraction in the Arabic calligraphy. He was so enthusiastic to my experiments, and to his astonishment he found me busy with piles and piles of works. Some of these works were sculptures, others paintings by water colour medium as well as coloured inks. At the same time he was also interested in the works of Mr. Ibrahim El Salahi who by this time used to mix his painting images with fine notation as script motives of traditional Arabic calligraphy. It did happen that both of us were immensely occupied in these new fresh experiments. Mr. Beier as an art critic and of deep involvement in art research got interested in my work. On the second day of his visit he asked me if he could take 30 paintings and to show it as a one-man exhibition in Nigeria. I agreed on his request with full satisfaction, for it was the first time to find an outlet to show these works outside the Sudan. On his return to Cadona in Nigeria he met his friend Dennis Williams. I thought they made an elaborated dialog before the show. Unfortunately by that time I was very busy in my teaching duties here in the College of Fine and Applied Art, so I couldn’t find any possibility for travelling to attend the opening of the exhibition. After two months I recieved a small booklet covering the introduction of the exhibition. It was written by Mr. Dennis Williams with the title The Calligraphy of Shibrain - The School of Khartoum. After five months I recieved a magazine called Transition published in one of the African countries - either from Kenya or Uganda. Unfortunately I missed the magazine a year ago and I don’t remember which city. Still the topic was Shibrain’s Calligraphy - The School of Khartoum, and what was important is that Mr. Dennis Williams compared my works to a German artist Mr. Hans Hartung. This man was quiet new to me, I haven’t seen any of his works. But because of the comparison he was of interest to me, and to find out I had rushed my way to the library. Then finally I found a few lines written about the artist Hartung with one of his works printed under. Then I came to know that Mr. Hartung left Germany 1930 to stay and exhibit his works in Paris. Then after a few years I used to see my works printed in art books and magazines in Europe as well as in some Arab countries. And to be honest that many activities came into existance that my works had influenced all the art movements in the Arab world and they gave new characterization even to the European countries, especially in the advertising and the publishing trade. And if you ask me what kind of influence it is that shaped the new trends of art in Sudan, I can tell you that many of the graduates of our colleges tried to shape their visual images in a way or another. And now I think it became a dominant factor in the transformation of the art movement and graphic design all over many other countries, even to countries in the far east like Indonesia and Malaysia. And you may also ask, why these trends became so active and so influencing the contemporary cultures. And if you wait for the reason, I can say that Arabic calligraphy with its flexible motion and with its famous decorative notation comes to be more than calligraphy. It is a body of aesthetical cultural impact intending to elevate the Islamic being to its full contemporary representation in the plastic art. In brief this was the moment of my real envolvment in art starting from 1960 up today.

Prof. Ahmed Shibrain
1998, Khartoum - Sudan