The Museum of Modern Art acquires work by Anwar Jalal Shemza

Hales are delighted to announce the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has acquired Anwar Jalal Shemza's 1964 painting, Meem.

 

Meem is now on view at MoMA's collection galleries highlighting Calligraphic Abstraction. Hailing from around the world, the artists in this gallery turned to the expressive possibilities of calligraphy in abstract art during the 1950s and 1960s. The works assembled here exemplify different calligraphic modes and systems of writing in mid-century modernism. From graceful experiments with Arabic scripts, decorative patterns formed by words, and rearranged or illegible texts and letters, to abstract strokes and spontaneous movements, they demonstrate the unrestrained vigor and communicative gestures of calligraphic abstraction.