AboutEventsInitiatives     Articles   Collection       Contact



An Online Exhibition by Reed Society





Beauty in 
Solitude

Inspired by the legacy of Şeyh Hamdullah, the Ottoman master calligrapher who revolutionized the art form over five centuries ago, and the continued work of Mohamed Zakariya, who brought this tradition to the United States, the Reed Society for the Sacred Arts, in collaboration with the Walters Art Museum, presents a unique exhibition of beauty in solitude. Following an unbroken chain of master-to-student transmission, this exhibition showcases creations by Zakariya and his licensed students, now based in cities across the globe—Washington, Detroit, New York, Madrid, Paris, and Istanbul. Through their shared pieces, workspaces, and reflections, this family of artists carries forward the spirit of Şeyh Hamdullah, whose innovations shaped Ottoman calligraphy, and Zakariya, who has cultivated its growth in the modern era. This offering invites us to marvel at the resilience of art and the profound connection it fosters, even in times of isolation.
















Explore the Exhibit








Seyh Hamdallah







Mohamed Zakariya




Nihad Dukhan
Nuria Garcia Masip
Elinor Aishah Holland
Deniz Öktem Bektaş




Khalid Casado










Acknowledgements



Just as a piece of calligraphic art takes many people- ebru artists who make the paper, tehzib artists who illuminate the words, and the unseen chain of the artist’s teachers, this exhibition has been a labor of love that simply would not be possible without the efforts of many people.

Special thanks to Salman Malik who spent countless hours helping to make ideas into a reality. His creativity and technical expertise helped shaped the direction of this exhibition. Thank you also to our interns on this project: Fatima Tourk and Lailah Mozaffar. We are honored to have collaborated with The Walters Art Museum for this exhibition and, in particular, with Ashley Dimmig whose expertise added a vital component to the understanding of this art. Finally, much love and gratitude to all the artists who contributed to this endeavor.



The Walters Art Museum



The Walters Art Museum, located in Baltimore’s historic Mount Vernon Cultural District at North Charles and Centre Streets, is free for all. The collections include Egyptian and Greek art from the ancient world, medieval art and manuscripts, Asian art, Islamic art, 19th-century French paintings, Renaissance and Baroque art, jewelry and decorative arts and much more. At the time of his death in 1931, museum founder Henry Walters left his entire collection of art to the city of Baltimore. For more information visit thewalters.org.


Ashley Dimming

 Ashley Dimmig was currently the Wieler-Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow in Islamic Art at the Walters Art Museum. Her curatorial work aimed to make Islamic art engaging and accessible to audiences in Baltimore and beyond. Within the broad scope of Islamic art history, her fields of specialization include a range of art and architecture from Turkish and Persian spheres in the early modern and modern periods. With a fine arts background in fiber arts and weaving, Dimmig is especially interested in textiles across the Islamic world. She is also interested in the historiography of the field of Islamic art and its intersections with museology, collecting, and issues of cultural heritage.

Her dissertation, “Making Modernity in Fabric Architecture: Imperial Tents in the Late Ottoman Period” (University of Michigan, 2019) views tents as imperial fabric architecture and analyzes their myriad functions and malleable meanings in the Ottoman court from the eighteenth century to the end of the empire in the early twentieth century. The dissertation was generously supported by the Ittleson Fellowship with the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts (CASVA), the Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi Fellowship in Ottoman Architectural Culture and History at the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) in Istanbul, and the Rackham Merit Fellowship from the University of Michigan. Dimmig also holds two Master of Art degrees from Indiana University Bloomington and Koç University in Istanbul, as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Kansas City Art Institute.







Subscribe to Our Newsletter



© 2024 Reed Society for the Sacred Arts