Arab visual arts

A painting by the artist Ahmed Sabri (1947), from the collection of Mrs Fatma Rifaat.

📖 In short

Arab visual arts include all the arts we see with our eyes, like painting, sculpture, decoration and ceramics. Some are fine arts made for pleasure and beauty, and some are applied arts made to use in daily life, like dishes, carpets and decorated furniture.

🤩 Did you know?

Art that uses Arabic letters in modern paintings is called “hurufiyya”.
Damascus makes wooden boxes inlaid with shiny mother-of-pearl.
Blue ceramics are one of the most famous arts of many Arab cities.
Many Arab capitals have museums of modern art.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Ancient arts

The people of Arab lands have known the arts for thousands of years: ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant and Yemen have wonderful statues, carvings and paintings.

🔍 Islamic ceramics

After Islam, Arab artists excelled at ceramics, making shiny colored plates, jars and tiles decorated with plant and geometric patterns and Arabic writing.

💡 Everyday arts

Arab art is found in woven carpets, engraved copper, wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, colored glass and embroidered clothes.

🎯 Today's artists

Today Arab artists paint modern pictures, some mixing Arabic letters with color in beautiful paintings called “hurufiyya” (letter art), and they show their work in museums and exhibitions around the world.

📸 More pictures

From the “horizons” period, oil on canvas, by the artist Mohammed al-Saleem.

Decoration of a copy of Imam al-Bukhari's Sahih, Tunisia, twelfth century AH.

A manuscript on folios dating from the fourth century AH.

🧩 Test yourself

1 What do we call art that makes useful, beautiful things like dishes?

2 What does “hurufiyya” art mix together?

3 Which picture shows “Arab visual arts”?