Mohammed Alajlan blossomed from a simple artist writer of sentences and phrases to a professional calligrapher whose passion in calligraphy made him dive deeply in the seas of letters beauty and philosophy as he analyzed and concluded them. He created a unique identity to his creative style that cannot be missed. I’ve known Mohammed Alajlan for many years and noticed his unique talent and saw him as a pioneer of Arabic calligraphy at the level of kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian gulf.
In other words, he’s got all the traits of the innovative and creative calligraphy artist in him, I used to blame him because he didn’t see his spectacular artwork as satisfying as he wanted it to be, although everyone agreed about his creative ability in this specific visual art field.
Mohammed Alajlan has been through many experiences concerning calligraphy arts and its rules, he became a member of calligraphy arbitration committee due to his spectacle insight for choosing the right fonts from the other ones and it made him able to see through himself and discover his creativity which he enhanced and improved greatly to be seen and observed in a charming way that touches people and critics’ mind and soul.
Alajlan’s jump-start was through his unique style which has become an eminent title based on essential elements such as, preserving the Arabic style of calligraphy combined with modernity which contributed to adding a high international value to his art and that was for his ability to deal with letters in a dynamic way as if they were alive with souls and characters that represented a great heritage. He creatively blended the letters with connotations, spectra and elements which sometimes represented random imagery figures, houses or palm trees in spontaneous interacted way which is constructed yet preserving the constants and roots of Arabic calligraphy combined with modern style that adds a unique touch of contemporary visual art.
Alajlan has the ability of transforming the letter into forms of expressions, he reshapes the words and letters to a visual language intelligently making the painting decorated with a randomly controlled accurate calculated amazing shapes spreading all over the painting in a way that makes you see the beauty of the painting from every direction and in any position. The artist Mohammed Alajlan’s letters shined into Arabsky rhythm in which the letters were mixed with elements and no matter how hard he tries to hide the highlighted bodies’ movements or faces in his artwork, but it still can be seen and noticed nonetheless in the texture harmony and rhythm between the elements of letters and images floating between them.
A beautiful canvas painting of a desert was decorated with forms of paths, surroundings and weather reflecting the charms of the Arabic desert style created by a vivid imagination. He creates his own visual world of dynamic realms, symbols and signs with constant activity that draws the viewers’ attention like pure magic compelling them to wander through the artwork making them to contemplate it for a thousand time but yet, tirelessly.
The arts he makes has a special touch that takes us into the depths of unknown seas of letters beauty and philosophy which becomes clear and comprehensive. He deals with his work in harmony bending the strict rules of calligraphy to become a dialogue of mixed letters with fonts and artistic values translated by his visual eye of art into the paintings representing untapped patterns of mountains, earth, and open space that shape renewable thoughts.
Arabic alphabet and sentences have had a divine sentimental stature to Muslims yet Alajlan has been bold enough to break the boundaries of that traditional concept of Arabic letters sanctity where most artists thought it would offend the value of Arabic calligraphy. He indeed succeeded in changing that kind of thinking by combining the ancient writings with modernity and keeping their sacred value and traditions, he was able to construct a cultural bridge of fine Arabic art and eastern traditions between the east and west.
Alajlan has been interested in streamlining Arabic letters and offered profound experiences through which he was able to create a special aesthetic form in his paintings with many abstracts and symbolic expressionism, the ways in which his paintings were carried out, combining the letters with inspired words and their styles in poetic lyrics which he created specifically for his paintings that touched the gallery viewers’ artistic taste making them eager to decipher and understand between the lines to find the hidden connotation in his painting. He combined fine art with calligraphy from the perspective of literature and intellectual point of view combining them within his painting.
Alajlan’s creative mind was inspired by the spiritual aesthetic of verses of holy Qur'an and Hadith, he worked and searched through them to achieve his unique style and became a leader in this type of arts, with his full conviction that the letters can play an alternative role and a parallel participant of all art elements, as the letters are important means to carry the cultural and cultural legacy.
He presented new dynamic authentic solutions in fine arts and became one of the unique examples of the Saudi fine arts renaissance especially in developing and processing the letters in calligraphy fine arts adding a new phase to letters context bringing back the warmth of the Arabic experience in calligraphy that started in the early 1960s where many pioneers and founders of the Arabic school restructured the forms of letters with visual elements controlled by the rules of balance and distribution of colors and lines with aesthetic dimensions and a musical harmony like a dazzling chemistry of beauty on the painting carrying soft sensations full of energy with hints of what was left in a place once upon time.
In conclusion, we can say that the artist Mohammed Alajlan brings back the presence of the identified shapes and forms of calligraphy which are saved in our visual memory helping art viewers to comprehend the insight of fine arts.
Mohammed Al-Monaif
February 2014 – Rab. ll 1435
