Mohammad Ehsai is one of the most brilliant calligraphers of our time. Ehsai’s bold and stunning paintings demonstrate a level of technical proficiency on a par with the old masters of the kufic, naskhi, and nasta’liq traditions. His depictions are stripped of the superfluous adornments of their older counterparts, giving them a purity and immediacy which affirms the relevance of calligraphy in a modern context.
Calligraphy has been employed as a key form of both religious and aesthetic expression since the advent of Islam in the Middle East. The use of Arabic script, the language of the Holy Qur’an, together with the beauty of Persian and Arabic letter forms, led to the development of a tradition which served at once as both art and worship. The restrictions in Islamic iconography led artists to channel their aesthetic impulses into calligraphy, embellishing the word of God itself, creating a divinely inspired synthesis of art and religion.