TEHRAN -- Students will be holding various programs for birthday of their teacher, master artist and sculptor Hannibal Alkhas, beginning on June 11.

A series of programs have been organized for the 12-day event in which paintings and sculptures created by the master will be put on display at different galleries of the Iranian Artists Forum.

Also arranged are birthday celebrations, live musical performances, painting workshops, and film screenings. Almost 250 paintings and sculptures will go on show featuring works by Alkhas from 1961 to 2001.

The opening will be on Friday afternoon at the Beethoven Hall of the forum where several prominent figures will speak. Musa Akrami will talk about the philosophy of painting and Firuzeh Sheibani will discuss the paintings of the past 50 years in Iran and the influence of Hannibal on paintings. The program will be followed by a live music performance.

Sunday June 13 marks the birthday of the artist. A children's painting workshop by Rima Tabei, and a theatrical performance by director Siavash Cheraghipur are among other celebratory events on the program.

On the following days, programs will continue with several film screenings on the life and character of the artist, including "A Man from Assyria' by Arash Raisian, and "Yellow, Red and Blue" by Farzad Tohidi.

There is also a program on June 19 in which Hannibal will be painting portraits on canvas of some of the participating poets.

The celebration gala will come to an end on June 23 with a talk by sculptor Hamid Shans followed by a live music performance. All programs are open to the public.

The son of Assyrian writer Rabi Adai Alkhas, Hannibal was born in 1930 in Kermanshah, Iran. He moved to the United States in 1951 where he attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1953 to 1959 and earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in fine art. He now teaches at different campuses of the Islamic Azad University in Iran.

www.tehrantimes.com