Ali Shirazi and Ornamental Activist Letters

More than anything else, Ali Shirazi's inventive calligram composition in dark blue captures the audience's interest. This element causes the viewers to get enamored with the piece right away and fix their gaze on it.

IranArt : At first glance, the audience is captivated to Ali Shirazi's square-shaped calligram, which is 150 by 150 cm and was painted on canvas with acrylic.

In the center of the canvas, we observe a big figure standing vertically like a tower. We see impassioned, flowing letters in the shape of a wonderful siyah mashq on both sides of this massive organ, as well as in the lower half of the image. The internal movement of these letters is further induced by their size fluctuation.

The calligram's characters have taken on new forms like to wax in Ali Shirazi's hands thanks to his proficiency and talent in classical calligraphy. The artist creates different picture combinations to depict a pure painting work that the audience can relate to based on his personal experience, even if they are uninformed of the calligraphic identities.

For this reason, when this piece was displayed in an exhibition, some in the audience claimed to have seen it as a fountain, as if the boiling water on the floor had hurled a tall, blue fountain into the sky. Another commented that viewing it reminded them of the Iranian poet Rumi's poem "We're From the Heavens."

While seeing this piece, another interpretation that might occur to you is the triumph of lovely, endearing, and vibrant lettering over gloom and darkness.

Ali Shirazi may have been proposing similar thoughts for quite some time. As a result, he has been using a striking and minimalist black hue for years as the foundation for the majority of his artworks; this color scheme is widely known.

Naturally, the artist has taken care to make the black color more expressive in this piece by leaving free space on both sides.

In this painting, Shirazi's observer letters are also evident. Some of the letters appear to have evolved into individuals who have separated from the group of siyah mashq dancers, adding to the composition and expanding the work's interpretive possibilities.

Ali Shirazi's calligrams are housed in priceless collections throughout the Middle East and Asia, such as the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, Mohammad Al Murr collection in the UAE, Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation in Dubai, Hassan bin Mohamed Al Thani collection in Qatar, Sharjah Art Museum, National Museum of Qatar, the Anwar Gargash collection in Dubai, the Juma AI-Majid Center for Culture and Heritage in Dubai , the treasure of the Pasargad Bank Museum, Tehran's Quran Museum and Imam Ali Religious Arts Museum.

Shirazi's calligrams, like his classic calligraphies, are in high demand in the Middle Eastern art market. In addition to his recent $33,400 sale at the 19th Tehran Auction and his record-breaking $60,000 sale at Christie's in 2012, he has had exciting and successful auctions at Bonhams London and other locations; examples of these can be found on credible websites like Art Price:

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