Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art to hold Hannibal Alkhas retrospective

TEHRAN -- The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA) will be holding a retrospective of Iranian Assyrian painter, art critic and translator Hannibal Alkhas (1930-2010) opening on Saturday.

 

A selection of paintings by Alkhas will go on display, while veteran painter Aidin Aghdahslu is scheduled to speak at the ceremony, Persian media reported on Wednesday.

 

The Assyrian member of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Jonathan Betkolia will also deliver a speech at the event.

 

Screening a documentary about the artist and launching his website are also included in the program. 

 

Alkhas was born and raised in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah. He moved to the United States and continued his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

 

Alkhas returned to Iran in 1959 and established the Gilgamesh Gallery, the country’s first modern art gallery. 

 

His work is deeply inspired by the ancient bas-reliefs and stone sculptures of ancient monuments.

 

Alkhas held numerous domestic and international exhibitions and a number of his paintings are preserved in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

 

Alkhas died in September 2010 in the United States at the age of 80. He had illustrated dozens of book covers, and his translation of Hafez’s lyrics into Assyrian was also among his other credits.

 

 

 

RM/YAW

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