With the Anfal Memory series, Ismail Khayat, the former head of Kurdistan¹s Art Department of the Ministry of Culture, honors the 182,000 Kurds who were killed by order of Saddam Hussein. Coincidentally, Saddam Hussein is currently on trial for these crimes. Painted in watercolor and India ink, the masks are boldly expressive and colorful, yet stand as memorials created by an artist who escaped the terrible genocide.

His work can be found in many European and Japanese private collections, and twenty-five of his works are owned by the Iraqi National Museum. Khayat’s prior visit to the United States was in the summer of 2001, when he participated in the special seminar, Civil Life in Iraqi Kurdistan in Washington, DC.