The Contemporary Arabic Sign in Qatar by Yousef Ahmad and Hessa Kalla

In the early 80s, Qatar, a small Middle-east country experienced a stimulating development in its contemporary art scene. Yousef Ahmad is one of its young artist who mostly focus on the Hurufiyah style of contemporary calligraphy. The Hurufiyah style is an innovation by using palm leaves in artistic expression. It also uses Arabic letters and Islamic architectural components. Later in 2012, a female artist, Hessa Kalla also used the same material and medium as Yousef Ahmed but with an addition of herbs and different techniques. The aim of this paper is to establish the knowledge and advanced understanding of Islamic art concepts found in Yousef Ahmad and Hessa Kalla’s artworks. The objectives of this study is firstly, to analyze the materials and media used to make the paper in their artworks. Second, to understand the factors of environment and style that influenced both artists’ artworks. Lastly, to explain the message in content and context of the artworks by Yousef Ahmad and Hessa Kalla. This paper reviews two selected contemporary artists from Qatar and the interpretations were performed by using secondary data collected from books, articles, journals and media electronic sources. The theories from other scholars were also used to analyze the content and context of the artworks. After analyzing and interpreting the artworks, the researcher concluded that artwork and powerful symbolic meaning can be invented using natural sources to replace current methods.