ISLAMABAD – Rasheed Butt, the world renowned calligrapher who is the only in the world who writes in Gold with Qalam (pen) was present in Islamabad on Monday to grace the inauguration of his calligraphic exhibition at Khaas gallery in the capital. This is for the first time that internationally well-recognized veteran artist, Rasheed Butt offered his prestigious artwork at a private gallery which according to the owner of Khaas gallery, Zishan Afzal, was “an exemplary and unique occasion for art lovers of Islamabad.”
Butt has worked to promote the art of Islamic calligraphy and has many students from around the world. One of his Chinese student, Usman showed up at the ceremony with a unique calligraphy work -called ‘Chinese Arabia’ which when viewed vertically resemble Chinese script while horizontally one can actually read it as an Arabic script, was no less than a surprise for the veteran artist.
‘Allah’, ‘Bismillah’, ‘Al-Fatiha’, ‘Qalma’, ‘Ya-Wadood’ were some of the noteworthy pieces of work in which the mediums used were gold on black paper, and ink and watercolour on paper. One artwork titled ‘Allah’ prepared through the use gold, ink and watercolour on paper was not for sale because “this work is very special for him, it is like blessing which he wants keep with himself” informed Saira Butt smilingly.
One unique moment of the day for the fans of Rasheed Butt was when inscribed Arabic scripts at the spot on plain papers with a special marker for his friends which they took home happily as special art souvenirs from Mr. Butt. “This is a treasure for me” remarked Rita Akhtar, the owner of one of the souvenirs.