Ahmad Khalid Yusof developed his soothing khat calligraphy technique in 1971. This work contains signature elements of traditional Malay patterns and iconography with the infusion of abstract art and ancient Arabic scriptures. A subtle interior geometry is created with the artist’s deftly manipulated colour nuances, rhythm, spatial ambiguity and patterning, thus setting a mood of existential bliss. Here, the khat calligraphy has attained a pictorial quality that occupies space and creates depth.
Ahmad Khalid Yusof was an art academician, an artist and an activist all rolled into one. After graduating from the Malayan Teachers College in Kirby, Liverpool in 1957, he joined the Specialist Teachers Training Institute in Kuala Lumpur in 1963. He then studied at Winchester Art School (1966 to 1969) and continued his studies at Ohio University, obtaining his MFA in 1976. He taught at the Mara Institute of Technology between 1970 and 1989, retiring as Deputy Dean in Academic Affairs. He served as Shah Alam Art Gallery director from 1991 to 1997, and was the founder-president of the Malaysian Artists Association established in 1979. In 1994, he was appointed Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka guest writer.