Nassar Mansour
Nassar Mansour (Arabic: نصّار منصور), (born February 2, 1967), is an artist, calligrapher, academic and designer in the field of Islamic Arts, specializing in Islamic Calligraphy. He is considered to be one of the most accomplished contemporary Arab calligraphers today. Nassar is best known for his serious academic research on Islamic Calligraphy and for his academic and artistic efforts in reviving "Muhaqqaq" (one of the six classical scripts الخطوط الستة) as a successful artistic medium for contemporary Islamic calligraphers. Nassar was the first Jordanian to obtain the traditional "Ijaza" in calligraphy from the Islamic world's premier master  calligrapher, Hasan Çelebi, in 2003, Istanbul. In April 2018, he was awarded The Artistic Creativity Award for his academic and artistic efforts in reviving Muhaqqaq script by the Arab Thought Foundation (ATF). Biography. Nassar was born in Amman, Jordan. He is the youngest son of the well-known Jordanian-Palestinian poet Muhammad Mansour Abu Mansour (1913-2000). His family came originally from Joureesh (جوريش), Nablus in Palestine, but Nassar has lived his entire life in Amman. He obtained his BA in Islamic studies, economics and statistics from the University of Jordan in 1988. Later in 1997, he graduated with an  MA degree in Islamic Arts specializing in Islamic Calligraphy from Al al-Bayt University in Jordan. In 2007, Nassar was awarded a PhD in the Art of Islamic Calligraphy from the Prince's School of Traditional Arts (PSTA), London. Academic and artistic career. Nassar started his academic career straight after graduation as a lecturer (1988-1995) of Arabic Calligraphy at the Faculty of Education and the Language Centre at the University of Jordan. In 1998, he became a member of Al-Balqa` Applied University in Jordan where he contributed to the setting up of the Institute of Traditional Islamic  Arts in 1998. This institute was responsible for the reconstruction of the twelfth-century Saladin's pulpit ("minbar") (منبر صلاح الدين) which was later in 2006 installed in its original place at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Nassar was mainly in charge of redrawing and designing the entire inscriptions and ornamentation of the "Minbar". Nassar lectured at the Prince's School of Traditional Arts from 2002 to 2007 when he was working on his PhD. Nassar currently is the professor of Islamic Calligraphy and Qur’anic manuscripts at the department of Islamic Arts, at the College of Islamic Arts and Architecture , W.I.S.E University, Jordan, and a researcher in The Islamic Manuscript Association (TIMA), Cambridge, project of cataloguing the Mamluk and Ilkhanid Qur’an manuscripts at Dar el-Kotob in Cairo. Artworks and exhibitions. Nassar's calligraphy works reflect the content and the meaning of the words and text, a style he has developed over the last 20 years of practice and research. His artworks demonstrate beauty and simplicity. His works are not limited to ink on paper, they extend to other media such as stone, ceramic, mosaic, glass, wood, metals and more. Nassar's Art works are to be found at the  permanent collections of many world museums such as: The British Museum in London, The Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy in Moscow, The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman and in many private collections around the world. He has participated in numerous calligraphy conferences, workshops and exhibitions in the Middle East, Europe, USA, Australia, Canada, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran, Russia and Japan. Artwork quotes. “If you come from a tradition that has renounced representation in religious context, such as Islam (there are no image in the Koran or in mosque), how do you-how can  you-shape that thinking through Art? Nassar Mansour's "Kun" shows exactly the same moment of creation as represented in Michelangelo, but graphically. The Qur’an describes the moment of creation as “He said to him, ‘Be!’ and it was.” The artist, instead of showing the event, shows us the Word of the Arabic script itself; "Kun" is the Arabic for “be”. The creation of humanity. The continuing word. A totally different way of imagining ourselves. "Neil MacGregor, Director of The British Museum (2002 to 2015)." “Mansour is a "khattat", a calligrapher who not only writes the "basmala" well but who  has dedicated his life to the service of beautiful writing, the essence of the meaning of the word calligraphy, according to Venetia Porter, Assistant Keeper (Curator), Islamic and Contemporary Middle East Department, The British Museum. Sir Mark Allen wrote: "Mansour is notable for the mission we see in his art and his writing to give new life to the venerable Muhaqqaq script, one of the six classical scripts of Arabic calligraphy”. “I studied calligraphy for a few months with Nassar Mansour, a Jordanian artist, a very serious and exacting teacher. I was only able to study erratically, but it gave  me neuromas admiration for these artists and the traditions in which they work”. Vikram Seth, Trustee of The British Museum. “Kun is an extraordinarily elegant and powerful graphic work, and obviously very much part of the Arabic tradition of calligraphy which goes back 1,500 years or so. But you do not have to be able to read Arabic to enjoy it –this is just a beautiful abstract design. The fact that it is a wird adds a punch”. David Barrie, Director, The Art Fund UK.