Calligraphy Art
Calligraphy (hat) art, an Islamic art, is based on writing ayats (verses) of Quran beautifully because Muslims strived to make the writing more beautiful.
Hüsn-i hat, from the word hat which means "writing, line", as a term, is defined as “art of writing Arabic script in a beautiful fashion by staying loyal to esthetical metrics." It can also be defined as “a spiritual geometry formed with earthly instruments.”
Calligraphy (hat) art, the most prominent one of art branches represented at Istanbul Sanatları Çarşısı and also of the Turkish-Islamic arts has a very deep history. Hüsn-i hat started upon guidance provided by Prophet Mohammed (saw) to clerks on how they will write letters and has an evolution of 1400 years. Spread of hüsn-i hat followed spread of Islam, and the most beautiful examples of this art were produced thanks to Ottoman calligraphers in particular.
Hat (calligraphy), an Islamic art, is based on writing of ayats in a beautiful form. Since it is words of Allah, Muslims strived, for centuries, to find ways of making this writing more beautiful. Art of Hüsn-i hat was performed within relationship of mater-apprentice, sustaining tradition of permission.
The most basic form of this art is Kufic script, born in the city of Kufa. There are 6 main script types known as aklâm-ı sitte (six pens), which take Kufic script, accepted as the basic script, as the starting point. These include sülüs, muhakkak, tevkî, reyhânî, rik’a and nesih. Taliq script born in Iran was written masterfully by, again, Ottoman calligraphers. Now, craftsmen of our bazaar are producing a great deal of art on aforesaid types of script.
If you want to have a look at calligraphy art works available in our store, please click here.
Examples of the works of our artists;
The artists performing calligraphy in Istanbul Handicrafts Center are as follows:
Veysel Kucuras
Veysel Kucuras was born in Istanbul in 1972. While expressing the effects of his art, he says “You begin to look at the universe through the eyes of art.” Veysel Kucuras, who has been performing the art of calligraphy for twenty years by going through the training of important calligraphers such as Hüseyin Kutlu and Abdülhadi Erol Dönmez, has adopted the phrase "the greatest miracle is the direction" to perform his art in the best conceivable way.
He participated in the Presidency of Religious Affairs 40 Hadith Exhibition, Istanbul Yeditepe Biennial, and represented Turkish-Islamic arts in Japan with his works.
Ece Oğuz
About the art of calligraphy: "Taking care of this art allowed me to spend my time always in beauty and I have always looked for the beautiful.” says Ece Oğuz, born in Istanbul in 1991.
Oğuz graduated from the Calligraphy Department of the Traditional Turkish Arts Department of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2014. She completed his master's degree in the Traditional Turkish Arts Department, under the supervision of Ali Rıza Özcan in 2017. She completed his thesis on “The inscriptions produced by tile in mosques in İstanbul builded by Mimar Sinan in the 16th century”.
Oğuz started his calligraphy education with İlhami Turan during his undergraduate education and continues with Erhan Olcay at Küçükçekmece Traditional Arts Academy. After 2 years of basic calligraphy training, she received an advanced calligraphy certificate from The Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Society, an international calligraphy society. She attended workshop trainings of important calligraphers such as Denis Brown and Yves Leterme within the scope of calligrapher activities.
Oğuz has participated in group exhibitions by working on the art of calligraphy, and she continues her art and design studies in her workshop named Meftun Sanat in Bazaar of Istanbul Arts.
Merve Özdeş
Calligrapher Merve Özdeş, was born in 1990 in Istanbul, and she graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Traditional Turkish Arts, Calligraphy in 2014, and completed his master's degree in the same department in 2017.
Özdeş started calligraphy with Ali Rıza Özcan in 2009, and she has been this art since his graduation. Other than calligraphy, she received marbling training from Uğur Taşatan and bookbinding training from Habib İşmen and İslam Seçen.
Explaining the effect of calligraphy on him with the words "It made me realize the beauties around me more", Özdeş has participated in many exhibitions at home and abroad.
