Hassan Masoudi’s creations are a blend of present and past art, Eastern and Western influences, tradition and modernity. He preserves traditions while simultaneously departing from them. Over the years, he has refined and simplified his drawing lines. The words and phrases he draws come from poets and writers around the world, or sometimes from popular wisdom. All his works are strongly inspired by humanitarian interests. The emotions one may feel when looking at his lines come from the movement of the lines, their lightness and transparency, and the balance between black and white, void and mass, construction and abstraction. “Better than pearls and coral is the gesture of one man towards another man” Walibah Ibn A – Hbbab 8th c

Hassan Massoudy

Hassan Massoudy was born in 1944 in Najaf, Iraq, Massoudy moved to Baghdad in the early 1960s to study calligraphy, he is renowned for his use of traditional Arabic calligraphy in his works. He is considered one of the first Arab artists to introduce “lettering” in the seventies of the last century by combining Arabic calligraphy and vocalization. Massoudy often bases his compositions on texts from poets, authors, and philosophers from both the Arab and European culture.
In 1969, he relocated to Paris to escape the rising conflicts in his country. Here he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied a number of traditional Western painting techniques.  After obtaining a graduate degree in plastic arts in 1975, Massoudy travelled throughout Europe with the Arabesque group, taking part in performances that combined music, poetry and calligraphy. He went on to hold many private exhibitions around the world, and published many books in Arabic, French, Italian and English.
Since 1980, his works have become coveted, and can be found in the collections of prestigious institutions including the Sharjah Museum, the British Museum, Japan’s Osaka Museum and the Jordan Museum, in addition to museums in Holland and Germany. Today, Massoudy continues to live and work in Paris, France.