History of Art faculty Iftikhar Dadi and Salah Hassan present on Nov 6 and 13 at the Textual Abstraction Within Transnational Modernism Symposium. Organized by Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational in collaboration with The Courtauld. This symposium explores how Arabic letters were transformed into abstract visual forms across North Africa, West Asia and South Asia in the wake of decolonization.
The discussions will take a comparative transnational approach to explore the ways in which artists engaged with the abstract and expressive possibilities of script either independently or through the formation of 'schools' (Khartoum school, Casablanca Art School) and movements (Lettrism, Hurufiyya, Saqqakhana) at critical moments of transformation throughout the 20th century, particularly against the socio-political context of decolonization. This framework will open up questions around the development of transnational aesthetics of decolonization, as well as how these practices gesture at broader networks and spheres of affiliation, beyond national frameworks.
