Tengiz Abramishvili

Date of birth 06.10.1975, Tbilisi, Georgia

Education
1993-1998 Tbilisi State Academy of Art, Georgia

Solo exhibition
2009 - Galery “Academy +”, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2003 - Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi History Museum.

Group exhibitions
2008 - "Myths and legends of antique Greec", Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi History Museum.
2006 - "New generation in modern Georgian Art", Gallery "Kopala", Tbilisi, Georgia.
2004 - “Ecology 2004", Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia.
2002 - Christmas exhibition of young artists.Tbilisi History Museum, Georgia.
2001 - Spring exhibition, Georgian National Gallery, Tbilisi.
2000 - Fall exhibition,Georgian National Gallery, Tbilisi.
1996 - Tbilisi municipality. Georgia.
1988 - International exhibition (2nd premium), Vilnius, Lithuania.

Symposiums
2003 - International symposiums, Kutaisi, Georgia.
2002 - Kemer, Turkey.
2002 - Art Villa Garikula, Georgia.
2000 - Akhaltsikhe, Georgia.
1998 - Shoreti, Georgia.
1997 - 1st international symposium, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Projects
2008 - Memorial plate of Salome Kancheli, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2004 - Memorial plate of Robert Bardzimashvili, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2000 - Monument of Gogi Dolidze, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Contact
9, Chavchavadze st., 0108, Tbilisi, Georgia
+995 32 999 074
+995 99 544 791
tengizii@posta.ge

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Levan Abramishvili

Date of Birth 22.04.1988, Tbilisi, Georgia

Education
2004-2008 -Tbilisi State Academy of Art, Georgia.
Field painting
Solo Exhibition
2008 - Gallery “Vernissage”, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Group exhibitions
2010 - "Tbilisi in May". Gallery "Vernisage", Tbilisi, Georgia.
2009 - Gallery "Vernisage", Tbilisi, Georgia.




2009 - Gallery "Vernisage", Tbilisi, Georgia.
2009 - "Landscape of Racha", gallery “Vernissage”, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2007 - Art-Bar, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2007 - Project “ Pro Art”, exhibition/sale of Students works, ProCredit Bank; Tbilisi, Georgia.
2007 - Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2007 - M. Tumanishvili Theatre, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2006 - "Akhalkalakhi" , Tbilisi State Academy of Art, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2005 – "Mtskhetoba" exhibition/sale, Mtkheta, Georgia.

Contact
+995 55 23 23 33
levanpao@yahoo.com

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Abesadze Avtandil

DOB 13.02.1950, Tkibuli, Georgia

Education
1965-1967 G. Maisuradze Art Scool, Kutaisi, Georgia
1967-1969 I. Nikoladze Art College, Tbilisi, Georgia
1970-1976 Tbilisi State Academy of Art, faculty of fine art, Tbilisi, Georgia

Medium painting, drawing

Solo Exhibition
1995-2000 D. kakabadze Gallery of Fine art, Kutaisi, Georgia

Group exhibitions
1990, 1995, 2003 International plenary of painters and sculpters, Kutaisi, Georgia
Since 1976 participates in republic, union and international exhibitions
Since 1990 member of Painters’ Union of Georgia
1981-1990 member of Artists Union of Georgia

Works are held
D. Kakabadze Gallery of Fine art, Kutaisi, Georgia
Private collections- Georgia, Russia

Contact
+995 99 133 764

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Merab Abramishvili

Merab abramishvili was born on march 16, 1957 in Tbilisi. From the very beginning he was "doomed" to communicate with art. His father, Guram Abramishvili, a brilliant expert of medieval Georgian art and the cheif of the treasury of the Museum of Fine Arts of Georgia, naturally surrounded Merab with the atmosphere which determined the field of interests for the future artist. Georgian and oriental pieces of art exhibited in the halls of the Museum, be it Qajarian portraints, ispahanian carpets or miniatures as well as the annual expeditions with father to the Sion church in the Ateni village created a kind of cultural memory which later, at a mature age, was formed as the basic visual and semantic unity of merab abramishvili'sart. The artist's mother, Natela Gharibashvili, recollects: "Merab was an avid reader as a child and very found of drawing. He was naively dreaming of leaving for Africa and used to say : 'ifthere is place on the earth that looks like the paradise then it is Africa" . These words involuntarily remind one the sandy color of vast African deserts and savannas, the coloration so very characteristis to his painting.

last Supper. 1990. Tempera on playwwod. 40 x 60


300 Aragvian warrios. 1987, tempera on playwood. 150 x 150

 Merab Abramishvili died in 2006. His works are notable for the mulitilayerness of transvagard art and the original interpretation if image motives from the richest archive of historic epochs. However, the idea of his paintings always remains within the limits of humanity and the image harmonization. Abramishvili has created artistic world where harmony and balance reign. He has reached the concordance among :the ideas,the order and the expressions thereof" - the concordance that generates the beauty of Merab Abramishvili's world.

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Avto Varazi

Avto Varazi (Born October 25, 1926 Tbilisi, Georgia.) was a Georgian artist and painter.
Avto Varazi occupies special place in Georgian painting of the 20th century. He applied various painting systems and techniques with equal success. Religious motives also took significant role in Varazi’s works which was quite unusual for a painter of Soviet period.
Avto Varazi was the first among Georgian artists, who applied technique of collage.
Varazi’s works are spread in world museums, while fate of some of them still remains unknown. "Bull’s head" by Varazi is kept at MoMa. Another one, also named "Bull’s head" representing a lamb’s head is displayed in Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. The other "Bull’s head" remains with Alexander Glezer in Paris and "The Octopus" in George Costakis private collection in Greece. His 15 works are exhibited in Georgian National Museum, others are displayed in art museums of Kutaisi, Tsageri, Ambrolauri Museum of Fine Arts and Senaki.
( Died March 3, 1977 Tbilisi, Georgia.)

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Zurab Tsereteli

Zurab Konstantines dze Tsereteli (born January 4, 1934) is a Georgian-Russian painter, sculptor and architect who holds the office of President of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Life

Tsereteli was born in Tbilisi and graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, but soon relocated to Moscow. Among his works from the Soviet period was a resort for children in Sochi, completed in 1986. His wife is Princess Andronikashvili, from a noble Georgian family that claims patrilineal descent from Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos.
Although much of his career was dogged by controversy, Tsereteli came to befriend Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who secured some important commissions for him, including the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Manege Square ensemble and the War Memorial Complex on Poklonnaya Gora. Luzhkov also allowed him to occupy an old mansion in downtown Moscow, which now houses the Zurab Tsereteli Gallery and where his life-size statue of Vladimir Putin is on display. He is acquainted with Eunice Kennedy Shriver through the Special Olympics. He designed and installed a monument (called Happiness to the Children of the World) on the campus of SUNY Brockport commemorating the 1979 Special Olympics and the International Year of the Child.


Projects

"Birth of the New World" in Seville.
The statue of Peter the Great in downtown Moscow which, at 94 meters, is the eighth tallest statue in the world. Popular legend states that the Statue was initially of Christopher Columbus, but that after being rejected by the US Government, its head was replaced, and it was sold to the Russian government as a nautical statue of Peter the Great. In November 2008, it was voted the tenth ugliest building in the world by Virtual Tourist.
An un-assembled statue known as "Birth of the New World" depicting Christopher Columbus. The statue was rejected by the US government when Tsereteli attempted to have it installed in the USA in 1992, in connection with the 500th anniversary of his voyage. The municipal government of Cataño, Puerto Rico, consented to having the statue built in their town, but later was unable to garner enough public support and funding. On August 15, 2008, the private contractor in charge of building a series of facilities for the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games, announced that the corporation had bought the structure and will build it in the municipality of Mayagüez, expecting to assemble it in time for the games.
The statue of St. George at the Moscow War Memorial and several versions of the same subject in Moscow and elsewhere. The foremost among these is a sculpture using sections of scrapped US Pershing and Soviet SS-20 nuclear missiles. The sculpture, entitled 'Good Defeats Evil' is on the grounds of the UN building in New York City. The sculpture is a 39 foot high, 40 ton monumental bronze statue of St George fighting the dragon of nuclear war. It was donated to the UN by the Soviet Union in 1990.
A 9-1/2 meter tall, 2 metric ton treble clef covered in mozaic gold that tops the cupola of the Moscow International House of Music. The sculpture rotates like a weathervane.[4]
His Tear of Grief (actually titled "To the Struggle Against World Terrorism") features a 40-foot teardrop suspended in the fissure of a 106-foot bronze rectangular tower. The monument includes the names of all the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, as well as the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. At the ground breaking for the massive project, Vladimir Putin was present and called the sculpture “a gift from the people of Russia.” It was erected at the tip of the decommissioned Military Ocean Terminal, now rechristened The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, in Bayonne, New Jersey (after nearby Jersey City first accepted, then declined, the free monument) and was dedicated on September 11, 2006. The artist, Bill Clinton, Michael Chertoff, New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine, and a 9/11 widow all spoke at the dedication ceremony.
On September 25, 2006, another Peter the Great statue by Tsereteli was installed on Vasilievsky Island, St. Petersburg, in front of the Pribaltiiskaya Hotel. The sculptor had originally wished it to be placed in front of the historic Manege next to St. Isaac's Cathedral, but this was turned down because of risk of damage to Quarenghi's building.
Other offers of statuary by Tsereteli rejected by intended recipients in recent years include a statue of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill next to Livadia Palace in Yalta (Ukraine), Magellan (Uruguay), the Colossus of Rhodes (Greece), Franklin D. Roosevelt (New York) and Balzac (France).

Cultural references

As a reflection of his controversial reputation, a satiric short story describing Tsereteli as an alien installing a beacon through his various sculptures was published by Boris Akunin in his anthology Fairy Tales for Idiots (Russian: Сказки для идиотов, Skazki dlja idiotov). The alien's name is given as Yagkfi Yeyukuyeudsh (Russian: Ягкфи Еыукуеудш), a seemingly gibberish-like combination which actually spells out "Zurab Tsereteli" when typed on a Latin QWERTY keyboard by hitting the keys where the corresponding Russian characters would be located.

Criticism

Tsereteli's works, though often welcomed by the authorities, tend to become objects of strong public criticism. His sculptures are often blamed and mocked for being incongruously pompous and out of proportion.

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Radish Tordia

Radish Tordia (born Abasha, August 21, 1936) is a painter of figurative art from Georgia. He works in oil painting, with particular emphasis on colouristic features. His preferred subject is women, who he regards as "the most beautiful creation in the world."
He graduated from the J. Nikoladze Art Studio in Tblisi in 1956, and then moved on to the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, from where he graduated in 1962.

He has been widely lauded in his home country, where he was denoted the "Honoured Artist of Georgia" in 1979, and awarded the State Prize the following year. In 1990, he became the "People's Artist of Georgia", and was the recipient of the "Order of Honour" in 1997. He has regularly exhibited throughout Georgia and Russia since 1978, and abroad since 1980, including Tunisia, Cologne, Washington, D.C. and London.
His work can be found in the private collections of the Queen of the Netherlands, former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, former German political leaders Helmut Kohl and Roman Herzog. It is also exhibited at the Georgian National Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg, and the Peter Ludw
ig Museum in Cologne.

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Dimitri Shevardnadze

Dimitri Shevardnadze (December 1, 1885 – 1937) was a Georgian painter, art collector and intellectual purged during Joseph Stalin's repressions.

Life

Born in a small village Bakhvi in the western Georgian province of Guria, then part of the Russian Empire, he was educated at the Art academies of St Petersburg and Munich. Upon his return to Georgia, he founded, in 1916, and led the Association of Georgian Artists. He helped also to establish the National Gallery of Fine Arts (1920) and the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (1922). He decorated several opera and theatre performances, and movies, and designed an official logo of the Tbilisi State University.

Revolt

In 1937, the Communist chief of Georgia, Lavrentiy Beriya, intended to destroy the medieval Metekhi church in Tbilisi, but met a stubborn opposition by a group of Georgian intellectuals led by Dimitri Shevardnadze. Beria replied to their urges, that it would surely be enough to preserve a scale model of the church so that people could see it in a museum, and then told Shevardnadze privately that if he gave up his efforts to save the church he would be appointed director of the future museum. The artist refused and was eventually imprisoned and executed. The church was preserved, however.
Georgian politician Eduard Shevardnadze is a son of a cousin of Dmitri Shevardnadze.

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Vladimir (Lado) Seidishvili

Vladimir (Lado) Osmanis Dze Seidishvili (also spelled Seidashvili) (1931-2010) is a Georgian painter and poet. Seidishvili was born in Batumi, a town on the Black Sea Coast. In 1956, he studied at the Tbilisi Fine Arts Academy, finishing in 1962 with a diploma as a graphic artist. That year he began working at Batumi's national press as an artist-editor. He also wrote poetry, plays and made stage scenery for the theater. He did so for the plays "Seventh Sky", "Innocent Eye", and "Brave Soldier Shveiko".
Seidishvili himself, characterizes his work as mainly expressionistic, though, like many artists from the Soviet era, he painted his early works in the Severe or Rough style, sometimes called "Ugly Realism". It reflects the concept of "narodnost", which essentially means that a work of art should be "national in style and socialist in content". At the same time, in Seidishvili's works one can see an archaic native treatment in the almond eyes of his characters, graceful outlining of their figures, and a frieze-like quality of the composition. The artist admits: "There was always an optimistic light in my works. I've always believed that good times would come."
One of Seidishvili's original work The Workers From Batumi (1966) can be viewed in the Springville Museum of Art in Maryland. This work is also featured in the book, Hidden Treasures: Russian and Soviet Impressionism by Vern Swanson (2001).
Lado Seidishvili’s published poetry books include “Poems” (1961), “Sun noises” (1963), “Wreath of sonnets” (1972), “Elesa” (1969), “Adam’s apple” (1995), “Poems” (2001), and “Requiem” (2005).
Lado Seidishvili died on February 27, 2010, and is interred in the pantheon for celebrated citizens in Batumi, Georgia.

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Rusudan Petviashvili

Rusudan Petviashvili (born 25 January 1968, Tbilisi, Georgia) – Georgian artist graphic artist, creates paintings using unique technique: total image is performed in one-touch.
Petviashvili's works and lives in Tbilisi, few months a year she works in Berlin, Geneva and Paris where she has a studio.


Childhood and family

Rusudan Petviashvili was born in Tbilisi January 25, 1968 in acreative family. Her father — a sculptor artist, mother — a poet and dramaturgist.
The talent of the artist appeared in early childhood. Petviashvili began painting when she was one and a half years old. Rusudan's parents tried to keep the identity of her talent, did not put it down, did not try to fit the personality of the girl in any frames. As a child, Rusudan could take charcoal or pencil and begin to draw directly on the walls of the apartment.
Rusudan's ancestors by the paternal side were physicists. The grandmother of the artist led the department of the Institute of Geophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR, she is one of the founders of the Georgian National Astrophysical Observatory. Uncle of the artist Vladimir Iosipovich Petviashvili is a famous physicist, co-author of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation, winner of the Kurchatov award.
On the maternal side, seventeen generations of Rusudan Petviashvili’s family were spiritual leaders (priests).
Rusudan is the eldest of five children in the family. Her two sisters and two brothers also connect their lives with art: Mariam is an artist working with wool; Salome graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts as fashion designer; George has bee

n organizing Rusudan's exhibitions; Demetrius, like his father, is the sculptor artist.
In 1990, Rusudan married Teimuraz Badriashvili, the head of the Tbilisi State Puppet Theatre.

Early solo exhibitions

First solo exhibition was held in Tbilisi, when the artist was six years old. The show presented around 100 artworks created in a unique technique: drawing performed without detaching from the sheet, in one-touch. In 1977 and 1981, two solo exhibitions of the artist took a place in Moscow. At the age of 14 Rusudan has presented her artworks in various cities of France, including Paris.

Meeting with Margaret Thatcher

In March 1987, Margaret Thatcher's had an official visit to the USSR for the first time within 12 years. The head of the British government expressed a desire to see other cities of the Union apart from Moscow, having chosen Tbilisi. In Georgia the politician visited the National Museum of Art, held negotiations with the government, took a walk through the old town and met Rusudan Petviashvili, who presented to Thatcher one of her artworks.
The period of study at the Tbilisi State Academy of Art

Rusudan Petviashvili graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Art, where she was accepted without examinations. As a student, the artist has created a number of iconic works. Many books were produced with her illustrations, including The Georgian Folk Tales and The Knight in the Panther's Skin by Shota Rustaveli (Moscow-Paris co-edition), the last one became her diploma work.

The work on the illustrations for the Gospel

With the blessing of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II, a group of theologians, scholars and artists started to create the largest handwritten Bible in the Old Georgian language.
Rusudan was the head of the artists' group, who was creating the miniatures for the Gospel of Matthew for almost three years.
Today, one hundred kilos Bible, made on parchment of the calfskin, is exhibited at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Tbilisi.

Importance and recognition

The artworks of Rusudan Petviashvili can be seen at the National Museum of Art (Art Museum of Georgia) (Tbilisi), the National Museum of Adjara (Batumi) and the Museum of Arts (Kutaisi).
Petviashvili's paintings are kept in the family collection of such political leaders as George Bush, Eduard Shevardnadze, Ilham Aliyev, Margaret Thatcher, writer and screenwriter Tonino Guerra, diplomats Richard Miles and Fabrizio Romano, and at the head office of the World Bank.
Rusudan Petviashvili paintings adorn the presidential palace of Georgia. She is a favorite artist of Mikheil Saakashvili.
“The art of Rusiko turns me to a very good mood, ― said MikheilSaakashvili. ― Maybe someone believes that art should be tragic, but I do not think so. In all these works the struggle between good and evil is depicted, where good always wins”.
In 1981, Saint-Jore (France) hosted a scientific conference to explain the phenomenon of painting of Rusudan Petviashvili.
Since 2005, Rusudan is taking a post of advisor at the International Charitable Foundation of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia named Revival and development of spirituality, culture and science, established by the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II.
Technique

All artworks created by Rusudan Petviashvili in one technique: drawing performed without detaching from the sheet, in one-touch.
Rusudan Petviashvili has always sought to create large-format paintings, she was looking for the perfect surface, which would not be limited in size unlike paper. She found a silk to be this material.

Awards and Prizes

Gold medal and the first-degree diploma at the 8th Republican Youth Olympiad of Arts (1975).
Gold medal and the first-degree diploma at the 10th Republican Youth Olympiad of Arts (1981).
Gold medal and the first-degree diploma at the 11th Republican Youth Olympiad of Arts (1983).
Winner of the Young Communist League Award for illustrations of the books The Knight in the Panther's Skin by ShotaRustaveli and The Georgian Folk Tales (1985).
International award Ambassador of Good Will (2005).
Order of Honor of the Georgian Republic (2008).
Presidential Order Shine (2011).

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Petre Otskheli

Petre Otskheli

Petre Otskheli (November 25, 1907 – December 2, 1937) was a Georgian modernist set and costume designer who designed in theatre in Georgia and briefly in Moscow. He was put to death during Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge at the age of 30, but his scenographic constructivism has had a lasting influence on the Georgian scenic design.
Born in Kutaisi, Otskheli studied at the Kutaisi realschule and the Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts in the 1920s. Through most of his career Otskheli had a creative relationship with the director Kote Marjanishvili who invited the young artist to his theatre in Kutaisi in 1928. Otskheli’s visual experiments and skillful use of stage for massive designs with a series of subtle elements earned him recognition, but he soon came under pressure from Stalin’s lieutenant in the Caucasus, Lavrentiy Beria. In 1936, Otskheli fled Beria’s persecution to Moscow where he was recruited by his fellow countryman Sergo Amaghlobeli, then the director of Moscow Maly Theatre. In 1937, both Otskheli and Amaghlobeli were arrested and shot on trumped-up charges of treason.

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Irakli Ochiauri

Irakli Ochiauri (born November 20, 1924 in Tbilisi) is a prominent Georgian painter and sculptor that holds the Shota Rustaveli State Prize, the highest prize awarded by Georgia in the fields of art and literature.
In 1945 - 1951 he was studying at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts on the faculty of Sculpture with professor Silovan Kakabadze and then Iakob Nikoladze.
His dissertation was devoted to Vazha Pshavela. He participated in exhibitions from 1953. His first work, the portrait of Marine Kubaneishvili attracted attention when it was exhibited in Moscow and, thanks to this, Irakli Ochiauri became a member of the Union of Soviet Artists.
In the same 1953 Irakli Ochiauri exhibited his first embossing - Portrait of Iakob Nikoladze that is considered as the renascence of the new Georgian Art of coining.
During ten years, from 1952 to 1962, he had been working alone in restoration and foundation of new face of the field of chasing. At the same time Irakli Ochiauri did not forget about sculpture too. He participates in exhibitions and competitions.

He is the author of the sculpture of pearl divers in Pitsunda, bronze monuments of Alexandre Kazbegi in Kazbegi and Vazha Pshavela in Dusheti. In addition to coining and sculpture he works in the fields of graphic arts and painting.
He is a People's Artist of Georgia and a Professor of the Georgian Polytechnic University.
He has participated at World Exhibitions of Montreal, Canada and Osaka, Japan. He had personal exhibitions in Norway, Austria, West and East Germany, Syria, Belgium, Jordan, Japan.

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Nana Meskhidze

Nana Meskhidze was born on March 13, 1936 in Tbilisi. She was only daughter of Archil Meskhidze (1912–1999), conductor of the Georgian folk music choirs and Anna Avlokhashvili (1917–1994), artist of Marjanishvili Theater, producer.
1944-1952 - studied in Ilia Chavchavadze Women's High School.
1951-1957 - studied in Iakob Nikoladze art school in Tbilisi.
1957-1963 - studied in Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts.
Since 1963 she was actually working and participating in many exhibitions.
Since 1965 - member of USSR Union of Artists.
Since 1977 - honored artist of Georgian republic.
Basic theme of her works are Сhildren and Motherhood. Nana Meskhidze's painting works are stored in museums of Georgia and Russian Federation.
She died on August 31, 1997 in Tbilisi.

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Grigol (Giorgi) Maisuradze

Grigol (Giorgi) Maisuradze (1817 — 1885) was a Georgian painter and a founder of realistic school in the Georgian portraiture.
Maisuradze was born in Tsinandali into the family of serf of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, a poet and general in the Imperial Russian service. In 1836, Chavchavadze emancipated Maisuradze and sponsored his education in St. Petersburg where he studied under guidance of Karl Bryullov. In the 1850s he returned to his native Georgia and taught painting in Kutaisi where he died in 1885. Most of his works have been lost.

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Levan Lagidze

Levan Lagidze (born 1958, Tbilisi) is a prominent Georgian painter.
He graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.
 
Lagidze's paintings are in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery
and the Modern Art Museum in Moscow, Russia; the National Picture Gallery in Tbilisi, Georgia; the Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ, US; the Gertsev Gallery; and the TMS Gallery in Tbilisi, Georgia.
  His works are also in private collections in Belgium, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Africa, UK, and US.

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Shalva Kikodze

Shalva Kikodze (1894 – 1921) was a Georgian expressionist painter, graphic artist and theatre decorator. Together with Lado Gudiashvili and David Kakabadze, he is considered a key figure in Georgian art of the early 20th century.
  He was born in a remote Georgian village Bakhvi, Guria, then part of the Russian Empire. From 1914 to 1918, he studied at Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1916, he took part in an expedition to the Georgian village Nabakhtevi and made copies of the 15th-century murals from the local church. He stayed in his motherland for a short period of 1918-1920, and worked chiefly as a theater decorator for Jabadari Theater in Tbilisi. Afterwards he moved to Paris, where he, together with his fellow painters, Gudiashvili and Kakabadze, held an exhibition in 1921. He died in Freiburg, Germany, on November 7, 1921
  Most of his works are now on display at the Art Museum of
Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia.

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Davit' Kakabadze

Davit' Kakabadze (August 8, 1889 – May 10, 1952) was a Georgian avant-garde painter, graphic artist and scenic designer. A multi-talent, he was also an art scholar and innovator in the field of cinematography as well as an amateur photographer. Kakabadze's works are notable for combining innovative interpretation of European "Leftist" art with Georgian national traditions, on which he was an expert.
Imeretia - My Mother. 1918
  Kakabadze was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Kukhi near the town of Khoni. Sponsored by local philanthropists, he studied natural sciences at St. Petersburg University from which he graduated in 1916. At the same time, he attended painting classes at the studio of Dmitroyev-Kavkazsky and did a research in old Georgian arts. After a brief period of working as a painter and educator in Tbilisi, he went to Paris where he lived from 1919 to 1927. He partook in the Société des Artistes Indépendants exhibitions and joint exhibitions with the Georgian artists Lado Gudiashvili and Shalva Kikodze. The cycle of landscapes reproducing the nature of Kakabadze's native province of Imereti is some of the most interesting of his early works. During his stay in Paris, Kakabadze was attracted by "subjectless painting," and worked on problems of pictorial technique, occasionally using metal, mirror glass, stained glass and other such materials in place of paints. He soon went over to an even more "Leftist" position, and paid generous tribute to cubism. He lectured on various aspects of visual arts in Paris and, developing his interest in kinetic form, in 1923 he constructed a film camera that produced the illusion of relief and thus became one of the pioneers of three-dimensional cinema. By the mid- 1920s he had rejected his cubist-influenced style in favor of more abstract sculpture and painting.
  Having return to Georgia in 1927, Kakabadze continued his Imereti themes in new monumental decorative landscapes, including industrial landscapes. Around the same time, he collaborated with the leading Georgian theatre director Kote Marjanishvili to produce several set designs for Marjanishvili's theatre in Kutaisi. In 1931, he also produced a documental film "The Old Monuments of Georgia".
  Kakabadze became a professor at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in 1928, but came under pressure from Soviet authorities for "failure" to abandon Formalism and adapt to the dogmas of Social realism. Eventually, he was dismissed from the Academy in 1948.

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Giorgi "Gigo" Gabashvili

Giorgi "Gigo" Gabashvili (November 9, 1862 – October 28, 1936) was a Georgian painter and educator. His work was particularly influential since he was the first Georgian realistic artist to cover a wide range of subjects, both in oils and watercolor, including portraits, landscapes and scenes of everyday life.
Life and work
  Gigo Gabashvili. The Bazaar in Samarkand. 1890s. Museum of Tbilisi State Academy of Arts
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire), Gigo Gabashvili was educated at the academies of St. Petersburg (1886–1888) and Munich (1894–1897). Returning to his homeland, he made his debut as the first artist to have been honored with a personal exhibition in Tbilisi. From 1900 to 1920, he taught at the art school operated by the Caucasian Society for Promotion of Fine Arts. Gabashvili was one of the founding professors of the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (1922) and was granted the title of the People's Artist of the Georgian SSR (1929). Gabashvili remained a staunch realist and made known his opposition to left-wing art. He died in Tsikhisdziri, Adjara, in 1936.

Gabashvili is best known for his series of vivid portraits of peasants, townsmen, and noblemen ("The Three Townsmen", 1893; "The Sleeping Khevsur", 1898; "The Drunk Khevsur", 1899; "A Kurd", 1903–1909; "The Three Generals", 1910; etc.) as well as multifigure scenes from Georgian ("Alaverdoba Festival", 1899) and Oriental life – many of them based on the sketches of his Central Asian journey in 1894 ("The Bazaar in Samarkand", 1894–1897; "The Divan-Bey Pool in Bukhara", 1897; etc.). Most of his works are now on display at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi. His 1895 copy of "The Bazaar in Samarkand,"      created at the request of the U.S. diplomat and businessman Charles R. Crane who met him during his travel in the Caucasus, was sold for USD 1.36 million at Sotheby's in 2006.

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Guram Dolenjashvili

Guram Dolenjashvili is a Georgian painter often working in a monochrome technique. He is a Meritorious Artist of Georgia and an honorary member of Russian Academy of Arts (since 2004).
Dolenjashvili was born in Kutaisi. He graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Arts in 1968 where he studied in the shop of Lado Grigolia. He mostly lived in Kutaisi but travel led to Russian North, White Sea, Kamchatka and Chukotka. His works are exhibited in the Art Museum of Georgia, Tretyakov Gallery, Pushkin Museum, Russian Museum and many others.

Many of his works are landscapes made in black and white, using a graphite pencil or etching with slightly surrealist shifting of reality still he is often considered a follower of traditions Russian realist landscapers of Ivan Shishkin and Yuly Klever.
Now, Guram signed the agreement with Raffian Art to produce limited editions of giclees.

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Gia Bugadze

Gia Bugadze is a prolific contemporary Georgian artist. He was the Rector of the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts from 2003 to 2012.

Early life and education

Gia (Giorgi) Bugadze was born on September 24, 1956, in one of the old city areas of Tbilisi, Georgia, to a family of doctors. From an early age he showed interest in art. He acquired a classical education in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. He studied at the Palace of Pioneers and Pupils, then at the I. Nikoladze Institute and finally at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (1977–1981), the Studio of Giorgi Totibadze and Koki Makharadze at the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1985, he studied at the USSR Art Academy and graduated there, under headship of Ucha Japaridze.

Life and career

He acknowledges his teacher to be the well-known Georgian artist Jibson Khundadze, the power of color, absorbed from him, was applied for a task of an artwork improvement, it was transformed and was established in its individual style, characterized by composition with live dramatics, audacity of the mastered art-piece. He has realized various personal exhibitions in Vatican- Rome, Basel, Zurich, Prague, Köln, Tallinn, Munich, Berlin, Moscow, Palermo, Barcelona, Paris, Cannes, New York, London, as well as participated in group exhibitions, international projects, and as a speaker - in international symposiums, forums, round tables and conferences (The George Washington University, Thomas Jefferson University - USA, Basel University-Switzerland.

At the end of Millennium, he turned towards educational activity. He joined the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, initially as a teacher, later as the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, and lastly as the Rector of the academy, between 2003 and 2012.

I am the professional artist,I am the professional teacher,I am the professional listener,I am the professional reader. As for me, the books and music are the same, that the buildings are for the city. Without them, art isn’t being created in my inward, that’s why, through my art, I have been the musician, writer, teacher and also, the artist”.

Personal life

The general characteristics of cultural circumstances of post-totalitarian countries completely affected the Georgian arts too. In these conditions, “survival” of an artist, detecting the identification point with the reality and mainly, self-realization, showed up in searching, appeared to be a hard problem. He was always supported by his spouse - a like-minded person, an art historian Ani kldiashvili.He has two children, Nino Bugadze-an architect and Lasha Bugadze-writer and dramatist, representative of the new Georgian culture.

Awards

He has been awarded many Prizes at various contests: in 1985 – Best Artwork of the Year – major Prize of the contest, held by Georgian Union of Artists; five years later - Prize of the President of France for the Best National Collection, at the International Festival in Cannes, France; in 1993 – Medal of Iakob Gogebashvili, awarded by Georgian Educators Association and Medal of Anton Cathalicon; in 2001 – Medal of the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University ; in 2002 of Vatican “Carolus Magnus”.

Artwork

Sea boarding - house Piazza arch, Batumi Georgia. 2010

Gia Bugadze achieved an early fame with the series of paintings called “Life of Kartli” (in different words History of Georgia). Since then, he often painted mythological characters, and their ‘appearance – or, ‘embodiment, or reincarnation feels as almost mystical.

Murals give full scope to his imagination, that appeals with complicated and large-scale compositions. In 2010, in Batumi, he painted the Piazza arch “Sea boarding - house”.

He has realized a wide range of mural projects in the temples and secular buildings: Church of Martin Luther in Berlin, and St. Nino Georgian Church in Paris; the library and conference hall of the Tbilisi State University, the conference halls of the Ilia State University and of the Georgian Technical University; the City Hall chamber; the “Kings Chamber” of the Georgian Parliament, the Hall of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia ; apartment of Claudio Berlinjieri in Rome; the “Chamber of Freedom of Speech ‘ at the Louisiana State University, USA; artistic panel “Tbilisi’ . His fantasies through various media are turning up in an interesting form.

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Elene Axvlediani

In 1922, he studied at the Art Academy . Was c . He disciple. In the same year , as a Fellow of theAcademy , being sent abroad and continued his studies in Paris, kolarosis Academy ( 1922-1927 ) . In 1927 he returned to his homeland . See a distinct individuality and identity of the artist is revealed in all genres . Especially large for his contributions to the development of the Georgian peizazhuri painting . Painting pictures of nature , urban landscapes, which are distinguished by their emotionality , romanticism , rich chromaticity , sometimes - Underline decorative , composition, construction acuity , always felt the mood - sometimes khalisini and festive, sometimes - sad, sometimes dramatic too.

Is performed with a special love of Tbilisi, Telavi old ubnebisadmi dedicated SIGHNAGHI and landscapes . His major works include paintings : " Old Tbilisi " (1924 , private ownership, Tbilisi) , ' Kakheti - Winter " (1924 , Museum of Art , Tbilisi) , " Old " ( 1926 , private ownership, Paris) , " Paris - a corner " ( 1926 , Museum of Art , Tbilisi) , " Telavi " (1927 , private ownership, Tbilisi) , " Alazany Valley " ( 1954 ) , " Imereti " ( 1956 , both of the images glerea , Tbilisi), " Autumn " ( 1959 , private ownership, Tbilisi) and others.
   Big Akhvelidani greatly to the development of Georgian theater set . Work theater artist 1928 - i started j . Rustaveli Theatre ( Tbilisi), and did not stop throughout life . Concluded a 72 -play , both in Tbilisi and other Georgian cities as well as Moscow , Leningrad , Kiev and Kharkov in theaters .
   It should be noted g . Palishvili " Absalom and air" (1942-1943 , Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre) , g. Antonov " solar eclipse in Georgia" (1932-1933 , m. Rustaveli Theater ) , ff. Puccini's "La Boheme " (1944-1945 , Moscow Tchaikovsky Opera Studio ) , J. . Verdi's " Bali - Masquerade " (1955-1956 , Kiev Shevchenko Opera and Ballet Theatre) and more. Akhvledianiwill worked productively in the book grapikashi . He owned a Vaja - stories and poems , Mark Twain , " The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ," H. . Longfellow " haiavatas Song " , f . Hugo's novel , " The man who laughs " , d . Kasradze tale " women - butterfly" illustrations. Named after him in the Children's Picture Gallery. He has received awards.

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Niko Pirosmani

Niko Pirosmani was born in the Georgia village Mirzaani to a peasant family in Kakheti province. His parents Aslan Pirosmanasvili and Tekle Toklikishvili were farmers, who owned a small vineyard, with a few cows and oxen.
  He was later orphaned and left in the care of his two elder sisters, Mariam and Pepe. He moved with them to Tbilisi in 1870. In 1872, while living in a little apartment not far from Tbilisi railway station, he worked as a servant to wealthy families and learned to read and write Russian and Georgian. In 1876, he returned to Mirzaani and worked as a herdsman.
  Pirosmani gradually taught himself to paint. One of his specialties was painting directly into black oilcloth. In 1882, with self-taught George Zaziashvili, he opened a painting workshop, where they made signboards. In 1890, he worked as a railroad conductor. In 1893, he co-founded a dairy farm in Tbilisi, whichhe left in 1901. Throughout his life Pirosmani, who was poor, was willing to take ordinary jobs including housepainting and whitewashing buildings. He also worked for shopkeepers in Tbilisi, creating signboards, paintings, and portraits, according to their orders. Although his paintings had some local popularity ( about 200 survive ) his relationship with professional artists remained uneasy; making a living was always more important to him than aesthetic abstractions.

  In april 1918, he died of malnutrition and liver failure. He was buried at the Nino cemetery: the exact location was not registered and is unknown.

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Lado Gudiashvili

Lado Gudiashvili was a 20th-century Georgian painter. Gudiashvili was born in Tbilisi on march 18.1896 into a family of a railroad employee. He studied in the Tbilis school of sculpture and fine art and lather in Ronson's privet academy in Paris. For a while, Gudiashvili belonged to Georgian poets called "The blue Horns" (1914-1918), wgo were tryung to connect organically the Georgian national flavor with the creative structure of French sumbolism. In Paris, he was a constant customer of the famous "La Ruche", a colony of painters where he met I.Zuloaga, Amedeo Modigliani, Natalia Gonchorova and Mikhail Larionov. Gudiashvili;s work was greatly influenced by Niko Pirosmanashvili.

   Filled with the charm of georgian life, the painter's early works combine dramatic grotesque with the charm of poetic mystery ("Live Fish" 1920 , Art Museum of Georgia). Closensess to the traditions of old Caucasian and Presian art was amplified upon his return tu Georgia in 1926. Gudiashvili's colors become warmer, and the perception of the world as a theater grew stronger . Like his compatriots, Gudiashvili freely used muthological allegories, the center of which was a graciously beutiful woman imagined as the musterious "Goddess of the Earth".

   Gudiashvili also worked as a monumentalist. painting anew the Kashveti church in Tbilisi in 1946, for which he was expelled from the Communist Party and fired from the Tbilisi academy of fine arts, where he had been teaching since 1926.

   In the voluminous "antifascist cucle" of Indian ink drawings Gudiashvili became a kind of "Georgian Goya": beastlike monsters surrounded the ruins of art and naked "goddesses" conveyed the ideas of the death if culture.

   Lado Gudiashvili worked also as a book illustrator, cinema and theater decorator. He died on July 20, 1980 in Tbilisi.

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