The timeliness of the topic is determined by the need to embrace the main directions and tendencies in the modern Arabic art on the example of individual works of art, in which Arabic graphemes make the main means of expression. North Africa, the Near and Middle East are the nearest regions to Ukraine we have singled out, in which Arabic calligraphy has reached a high level of development. The dissertation examined the creative activities of individual artists, who separated Arabic graphics from its semantic and phonetic meaning in search of new artistic-formal and compositional solutions.
The goal of the scientific work is to determine the peculiarities of the use of Arabic graphemes in modern plane spatial and volumetric spatial forms of art.
The object of the dissertation is painting (easel and monumental), graphic, photographic, sculptural works within the period from the middle of the 20th till the beginning of the 21st centuries, based on the Arabic calligraphic tradition.
The scope of the study is artistic peculiarities of Arabic graphemes in plane spatial and volumetric spatial forms of art within the period from the middle of the 20th till the beginning of the 21st centuries.
In the first chapter, a comprehensive analysis of the specialized literature proved that in the Ukrainian scientific discourse, there was no comprehensive monograph with in-depth study and materials backed up with facts, which would highlight the names and consider the general artistic and stylistic peculiarities of the creative pursuits of the masters of Arabic calligraphy from Ukraine. The prospect of the further studies makes the restoration of archaeological field studies and the implementation of a thorough art analysis of the museum, library and private collections in Ukraine aimed at the introduction of the previously unknown works into scientific discourse.
The second chapter found out that approximately in the 17th century, calligraphers from the Ottoman Empire became interested in the practice sheets, known in history as «siyah mashq», created on the territory of modern Iran not only to improve writing skills, but also for collecting (during the 16th–19th centuries). The common features peculiar to the Iranian and the Turkish sheets were noted
It was found that during the period from the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries, Ottoman calligraphers adhered to stable technique and artistic principles in the traditional art of decorating skeletal sheets with Arabic calligraphy. They inscribed complex calligraphic compositions into certain planar natural or symmetrical geometric shapes. It was revealed that since the beginning of the 20th century, as a result of the writing reform introduction in Turkey, the aesthetic grounds and principles of the studied practice had begun to rapidly fall into decline. In the 21st century, a certain revival of the mentioned practice in the work of individual artists was observed. The common and distinctive features of the art of leaf decoration with calligraphic painting of two conditional periods: the 19th - early 20th century and the early 21st century have been established.
The third chapter revealed that already in the middle of the 20th century the artists had stepped back from the traditional decorative finishing of calligraphy in the siyah mashq practice, as at that time the oil paints became widespread in the field of calligraphy as well. The following distinctive features were established: traditional siyah mashq sheets showed initial stages of compositional arrangement, while there was an active desire to create a more expressed artistic composition with a highlighted composition center, distribution of accents, balancing of proportions and a hint at spatiality in the modern works. In the works of the certain artists, the Arabic letters were whatsoever transformed into abstract lines. But, at the same time, the leading idea of siyah mashq practice, i.e. rhythm and repetition of elements, remained unchanged everywhere.
The main directions and peculiarities of involvement of the Arabic and Persian texts in the modern conceptual photography were brought to light. In the last decade, the so-called light calligraphy developed. The calligraphic movements of an artist are recorded by a camera set for a long exposure, which greatly expanded the possibilities of applying the calligraphic art.
The fourth chapter, the calligraphic sculpture was classified according to the spatial volume types: abstract sculptures; plane sculptures; openwork sculptures. It was established that the Modern calligraphic wall painting has both an aesthetic and philosophical meanings.
The results of the study can be used by lecturers of educational institutions in preparation of the lecture material in the theory and history of fine arts of North Africa, the Near and Middle East.
