MP Yonathan Betkolia, the representative of the Assyrian and Chaldean Christian communities in the Majlis, made a speech at the ceremony and handed Alkhas the honorary plaque of the Assyrian Association of Tehran.
Alkhas also expressed his gratitude and gave a short speech about his childhood and his pleasant memories of the past.
He regards painting as the most natural art of mankind in the world and asked that all the parents keep their children’s drawings and paintings, and hand them the artwork on their wedding day, “This would be the best gift to review their past”.
“Painting is for children and is a return to childhood. We all like to slip back to our childhood and the more we recall those days, the more we enjoy art, painting, and writing,” he added.
“Painting is a special art with a unique language which I recommend every one learn. It is the only art which is embedded in every body. You can show me your children’s paintings and I will tell you what inner talent is hidden within them,” he concluded.
A total of 20 paintings are on display at the gallery located on Mokhaberat St. off Ayatollah Kashani Blvd. In the Shahr-e Ziba neighborhood.
The son of Assyrian writer Rabi Adai Alkhas, Hannibal was born in 1930 in Kermanshah, Iran, and spent his childhood and teenage years in Kermanshah, Ahwaz, and Tehran.
It was in 1951 he moved to the United States. From 1953 to 1959, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago where he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in fine art.
In 1959, after the death of his father, Hannibal returned to Iran where he taught at the Tehran School of Fine Arts for nearly four years.
In 1980, Hannibal spent twelve years teaching art at the Assyrian Civic Club of Turlock, the University of California at Berkeley, and a number of private schools.
He is now teaching at different campuses of the Islamic Azad University in Iran.
RM/YAW
END
MNA