Hannibal Alkhas’s paintings have a kind of narrative expressionism that is formed on the basis of mythological, religious and social themes. Alkhaz was undoubtedly one of the most influential and influential teachers of modernism in Iran. Alkhas loved poetry and literature and was himself a writer and a member of the Writers' Association of Iran. In the 1970s, he wrote art criticism for the Kayhan newspaper. He later published a collection of these critiques, memoirs, and other writings in his book “Open with the Sun”.
Hannibal alkhas was born in an Assyrian family in Kermanshah. He has been interested in painting since he was a child and has drawn cartoons for magazines such as Towfigh. After immigrating to Tehran, he learned the basics of painting from Jafar Petgar. He had little interest in the academic style of painting, nor did he have much success in this style of work due to the vibration of the handle. At the same time, he was influenced by the coffee house paintings, which were up-to-date, and turned to the expressive features of this style. Alkhaz left for the United States to continue his education in philosophy and mathematics at Loyola University in Chicago. He then went to the Art Institute of Chicago, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in art. After graduating in 1959, he returned to Iran and exhibited collections of his works in the Iran-US Association and the Reza Abbasi Museum. Two years later, he established the Gilgamesh Gallery in Tehran. Gilgamesh played an important role in supporting the new generation of modern artists. Pilaram, Borujeni, Dadkhah, Mahmoud Zanganeh, etc. were among the artists who were introduced to the Iranian artistic community through Gilgamesh Gallery. In the post-revolutionary years, he was travelling between Iran and the United States and taught painting.
Hannibal Alkhas figurative paintings form an important part of the experiences of modern Iranian art. This Assyrian artist combined the narrative of Iranian art with mythical allegories and used expressive atmospheres to give his works a distinct identity. "... From the mid-1960s, he turned to more complex combinations with bright colors and sometimes with explanatory writings,” Ruyin Pakbaz writes about special works. “Ancient myths, Assyrian and Achaemenid reliefs, Christian icons, murals by Mexican masters, and Gauguin's paintings inspired him. He was very interested in literature, especially modern poetry, and created a number of his paintings based on the poems of Nima, Shamloo, Forough and others."
In Alkhas’s paintings, humans have a constant and frequent presence. "I used to go to live modeling classes to paint," he says. It was in that class that I did my first mental work. It was a mental work full of human faces. "Imaginations were mostly about works that had human limbs and human faces, but the first time I kept a theme in my work and repeated it, and later it became the signature of my work, it was the abundance of people."
Hannibal Alkhas' first appearance in the auctions dates back to June 2013 in Tehran.