Two venues in Tehran are host to works of the 8th Fajr International Festival of Visual Arts.

�Fajr and National Art� is the title for the visual art event inaugurated on February 8 at Niavaran Cultural House, Honaronline reported.

It features works of calligraphy and Persian miniatures that are considered the most outstanding fields in Iranian heritage, said festival secretary Mojtaba Aqaei on the opening day.

Over 65 works from artists of different generations are on display �presenting both contemporary and classic artwork in various styles.�

Majid Haddi, Habib Ramezanpour, Alireza Jangani, Ali Kheiri-Habibabadi, Mostafa Abedini, Hadi Honardoost, Bahador Pegah, Jamshid Yari, Shamseddin Moradi, Soqra Hosseini, Ahmad Heidari, Zahra Fakhr and Mojtaba Sharifi are among the artists participating in the event that runs through March 7.

The other art show �The Treasure of Heaven�, opened a day earlier and displays over 40 paintings, calligraphies, illuminated manuscript and works of �Flower and Bird� (a special Iranian painting style) at the Palestine Museum of Contemporary Art, in collaboration with the Malek National Library and Museum Of Tehran.

All the exhibited artworks with the theme on Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Shia Imam, are selected from among the treasury of the Art Creation Institute of Astan Quds Razavi, an autonomous charitable foundation in the holy city of Mashhad, which manages the Imam Reza shrine and various institutions which belong to the organization. The treasury has been created from donations to the institute by prominent artists over a long period of time.

Veteran Iranian miniaturists, Ehsan Afshar, and his master, Reza Mahdavi, and top calligraphists Gholamhossein Amirkhani, Amir-Ahmad Falsafi, Mojtaba Malekzadeh, Seyed Reza Bani-Razi, Abbas Akhavein and Mohammad Ali Farasati are among the artists whose glorious works of art are featured at the museum.
Not all the exhibited items are original, said Aqaei.

�It was not possible to shift some of paintings to the museum, so their copies, created by volunteer artists, are displayed instead.�

The exhibition will run until February 20 at the Palestine Museum, located at No. 74, Bozorgmehr Junction, Mozaffar Brothers St., Taleqani Ave., Felestin Sq., Tehran.

As the exhibited items at both the venues are classic and traditional arts, the works can�t participate in the festival�s competition section, specialized for contemporary arts.

The 8th Fajr International Festival of Visual Arts started on January 29 and will continue until March 7. Over 4,900 artists, including 105 artists from abroad are participating.

By Financial Tribune