Issam El-Said
Iraq, b.1939 - 1988
Painter, designer, architect, art historian and expert on Islamic art, Issam El-Said read architecture at Cambridge University, graduating in 1961 after which he went to Hammersmith College of Art and Design (1962-64). At the time of his death, he was doing research in Islamic art for his Ph.D. at University of Newcastle-upon Tyne in England. He designed several mosques and mosque interiors, including London Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre (1976-77). He lived and worked in London from 1958 and until his death and was a member of “Christies’ Contemporary Artists” group. El-Said was one of the early Arab artists to investigate the inclusion of calligraphy into modern works of art. Since the 1960s almost all his works either included calligraphy or Islamic design in one form or another.
