Hassan Massoudy
1944– · Najaf
- Calligraphers
- Living
- Hurufiyya
Hassan Massoudy was born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1944. As a boy he was drawn to drawing and to calligraphy, and in 1961 he moved to Baghdad to work with the city's calligraphers and learn the classical hands. In 1969 he left Iraq for Paris, where he studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts while paying his way by writing Arabic headlines for magazines. In 1972 he created Arabesque with the actor Guy Jacquet, later joined by the musician Fawzi Al Aiedy: a performance in which his calligraphy, drawn live and projected on a screen, accompanied poetry and music. Touring it for thirteen years changed his work. His strokes grew faster and broader, and he brought colour into a black-and-white art, often writing short lines from poets and thinkers in a few large letters. He has published some twenty books, beginning with Calligraphie arabe vivante (1980). His work is held by the British Museum, the Musée du quai Branly and the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, and later calligraffiti artists such as eL Seed name him as a model. He lives and works in Paris.
Achievements
- Trained with calligraphers in Baghdad from 1961, then studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1969.
- Created the stage show Arabesque in 1972, with live calligraphy projected on a screen beside poetry and music, and toured it for thirteen years.
- Published Calligraphie arabe vivante (Flammarion, 1980) and some twenty books in all.
- Works in the British Museum, the Musée du quai Branly, the Sharjah museums and the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka; shown in the British Museum's Word into Art (2006).
- Named by the street artist eL Seed as a main influence on calligraffiti.
His work
He is living, so his calligraphy is protected by copyright and no works are shown.
Write in the tradition this hand shaped.
Open Mashq Studio →Living calligraphers you can buy from — signed originals on paper, from AED 550: Anwar Alhulwani (Thuluth) · Ahmed Alhawary (Jali Thuluth, Naskh) · Rasha Kasim (Kufi).
Sources
- English Wikipedia: life, Arabesque, collaborations, influence, books en.wikipedia.org
- Arabic Wikipedia: Baghdad training, Paris, museum collections, 1980 book ar.wikipedia.org
- French Wikipedia: Arabesque toured 13 years, colour, Hurufiyya fr.wikipedia.org
- October Gallery: biography, Word into Art 2006, collections octobergallery.co.uk
Written by the MASHQ studio · last updated 2026-10-05. Further reading, the standard references in English: Sheila S. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh University Press, 2006) · Annemarie Schimmel, Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (New York University Press, 1984) · Yasin Hamid Safadi, Islamic Calligraphy (Thames and Hudson, 1978).