A History of Calligraphy

In this splendidly illustrated history, Gaur (A History of Writing) argues that only three civilizations produced true calligraphy: the Arabs and the Chinese (and those who used their respective scripts), and Europeans who adopted Roman script and laws within a Christian tradition. Gaur, a deputy director of the British Museum, interprets calligraphy as a mirror of a particular culture's concepts of harmony, attitudes to writing, and historic motivation. Islamic calligraphy, made in the service of Allah and a theocratic order, became infused with mystic qualitities related to divine will, revelation and conquest. In the West, the calligrapher has primarily been a craftsperson serving Rome, a monastic order or the secular marketplace. Only in the Far East, Gaur maintains, was calligraphy foremost a creative expression of the artist's inner self. Filled with hundreds of elegant, imaginative examples of calligraphic art, this study extends to the 20th-century revival of calligraphy in Europe and the U.S., as well as postwar experimental styles in China, Korea and the Arab world. (Jan.)