Onderstaand traditionele Georgische verhaal is bijna een perfecte karakterschets van de cultuur van de Georgiërs. Het bevat de kernwoorden: familie, godsdienst, het vaderland, gastvrijheid, eten en drinken, kunst en het lot. Op een gemiddelde feestavond wordt op al deze zaken een toost uitgebracht, misschien met uitzondering van "het lot".

God was al het land van de aarde aan het verdelen aan de volkeren. De Georgiërs waren echter veel te laat; een aantal families waren bij elkaar te gast en natuurlijk werd er een groot banket georganiseerd. Ze hadden tot laat gegeten, gedronken en gezongen. Toen ze later bij God kwamen had die alle aarde al verdeeld over de volkeren. Toen ze hem vertelden dat ze een feest hadden gehouden en daarom te laat waren gekomen glimlachte God en gaf hen het laatste stukje aarde, het stuk dat hij voor zichzelf had gereserveerd. Zo is het gekomen dat de Georgiërs het allermooiste stukje van de aarde bewonen.

Short Retrospective Review of the Contemporary Georgian Art

Anna Kldiashvili, art historian, Tbilisi
Georgiedag  2006, Amsterdam

20th century' s Georgian art is ful1 of interesting and sometimes contradictory phenomena. Since the beginning of the century the specific art problems as well as the problems of common character were set there, one of which was the issue of tradition and innovation? Probably it was irreversible that the fundamentals and eternal dilemma of Georgia's history, polities, state system, thinking, and culture were the permanent uncertainty between the East and the West. This is clearly reflected in the Georgian painting in which the signs of Western and Eastern cultures have been strangely tied together over the centuries.

Georgian art of XX century "begins" with the great Georgian artist, representative of Naïve art Niko Pirosmani. Like a bright star, Pirosmani stands separately in the Georgian painting of 1910-1920s. His creative work holds centuries-old tradition of Georgian art and at the same time it acquired modem sound. Niko Pirosmani had a rather hard life. He died in solitude and poverty even before he got the public recognition. His grave has never been discovered. Only after his death, he was "discovered" by the Georgian society. He got the worldwide recognition in 1950s after his paintings were exhibited in different cities worldwide (Moscow, Vienna, Paris, Warsaw, Dresden, Zurich, etc.).
 It should be noted that this period (from 1910 until 1930s) is one of the most interesting and significant stages in the Georgian art of 20th century. Every sphere of art is being filled with the creative energy and among them fine arts. Because of organic synthesis of old and new rather interesting and original painting, conditionally referred to as 1920s painting, appears. The painters David Kakabadze, Lado Gudiashvili, Elene Akhvlediani, Shalva Kikodze, etc. studied in Europe's leading arts centers for several years and travelled in different countries whereupon they returned to Georgia and took part in the artistic life.
Each of these painters stands out for clear individualism. This was the epoch of strong, interesting individuals.
If David Kakabadze is the follower of abstracting another Georgian artist of bright individualism Lado Gudiashvili uses hyperbolizing and stylization of a form as an artistic method thus achieving strong expressivity.
One of the typical and very interesting artists of the 1920s is Lali (Emma Lalaeva-Ediberidze), who resorts to almost every avant-garde trend (futurism, cubo-futurism, constructivism, etc.) but does not use any of them in pure form.  Her name and her creative work were practically unknown till the recent time - Georgian society "discovered" this talented artist thanks to an exhibition staged in one of the Tbilisi's art galleries in 2000.

But this period is followed by approximately a fifty-year of "Soviet period" in the Georgian art; "the iron curtain" and ideological press which "started working" as a result of Georgia' s sovietisation once again threw out Georgia from the course of its natural development. The well-known slogan "Soviet art must be of socialistic shape and of nationalistic contents" did not give a space for existence to free creative work.
In the course of about 30 years, socrealism took its stand. In the middle of 1950s, i.e. after Stalin's death a certain inclination towards creative freedom is gradually observed in many of soviet republics. In Georgia, this phenomenon is known by the name of 1950s generation's revolt. At that, time the pleiad of young artists (Z. Nizharadze, G. Kutateladze, Dj. Khundadze, E. Kalandadze, A. Bandzeladze, A. Varazi, etc.) appear who fearlessly break a taboo of formal striving. The artists of this generation became interested mainly in colour as one of the most important graphic tools. It is clear that due to closed borders these artists suffered from the lack of information about the modem western art but their thirst for novelty was so strong that they seized the new impulses from the air.

It should be noted that there paintings were not exhibited at that time. They were being kept in the artists' studios for a long time. Moreover, many of them earned their living by painting the portraits of political and party leaders that were ordered by the authorities i.e. they led double creative life which is not so easy. But Georgia is a small country where everybody knows everything about one other. These painters played an important role in the Georgian painting; actually, they managed to put forward and to settle to some extent the formalistic problems that were tabooed by the officials. In other words they broke through one important barrier and paved the way for the next of 1960-1970s.

At the same time, the period of "stagnation" begins. The ideological press and the censorship are not as severe as they were during the Stalin's rule. "Socialistic form" in the painting is almost subdued and the artists have the opportunity to consider the ways of solving new problems. Therefore, they start to look for new themes. Of course the first steps are uncertain, they start looking for eternal and imperishable in everything that surrounds human being i.e. in objective reality: old things, Georgian rural attributes and ethnography. They paved the way for a “burst” of the absolutely new religious and national themes in the 1980s. But, it was a mission of another generation of 1980s.
 
The three artists with outstanding individualism are distinguished  in 1980s - Irakli Pardjiani, Gia Bughadze, and Levan Choghoshvili. All the novelties that are typical for that generation have been gathered in the creative work of these artists.
According to the Georgian art historians and critics the the exhibition organized by the two artists Gia Bughadze and Levan Choghoshvili in 1985 in the artist' s house of that time (it was burnt down during the civil war in 1991-1992) is regarded as the reference point for the generation of 1980s. In fact, this exhibition named "From the history" became this generation's program dec1aration. The works displayed on the exhibition were the large paintings created on the subject of the history of Georgia (supported by the annals) by Gia Bughadze and the portraits of Georgian kings by Levan Choghoshvili. It was the demonstration of totally different kind of art. The most valuable features of this art were the deep comprehension of Georgia's spiritual past, innovative perception and establishing of thematic painting, the world's cultural heritage, and traditions in fine arts. This is exactly why this exhibition became an important event. The interest was so big that there was not enough space in the show room for everybody willing to see the exhibition; the administration of the artist's house had to prolong the exhibition for a week. This exhibition showed the society that a totally new and vivid wave had come into the Georgian painting. A new generation of artists came for whom the painting exceeded the limits of pictorial, formalistic and narrowly artistic problems and who had the fresh comprehension of the role and the mission of the art in the public life. For the society it became c1ear that the artists had started "to speak about" the new values.

The three artists with different manners, temperament and aesthetics are allied to each other with the strong desire of perception and the openness for novelties. These intellectuals destroyed the myth on the Bohemian way of life of art world. They widened the intellectual horizons and the depth of painting and imparted the philosophic sounding to the Georgian painting.

Irakli Pardjiani was the oldest between them, a lively, intellectual artist with seeking personality. He was constantly searching for a novelty: new forms, themes, and solutions. However he did not make novelty his aim, he did have what to say to people.
He died young, he was only 42 but he left rich heritage after himself. Irakli Pardjiani was a rather productive artist: he intensive1y worked in the easel painting and graphic arts. He has created portraits, still life, landscapes, and paintings on the subject of the Gospel, illustration to the books. In his paintings, Irakli Pardjiani explores such issues of fine arts as interre1ation between the light, shadows, space, and flatness. By doing this he practically makes the form to vanish, reshapes the plastic form into the body of the light thus making its dematerialization.

Another important representative of the 1980s generation is Gia Bughadze. You'll find just everything in his paintings - history, contemporaneousness, philosophy, mythology and music. New artistic outlook, revision fundamental problems of art, turning the creation process into the act of self-perception, investigation and experimentation of art's synthesis, review of the wide socio-cultural and historical contexts, comprehension and revaluation of means, methods and styles of contemporary western fine arts and their appropriation in close relation with to our national roots and traditions - this is the incomplete list of the problems that Gia Bughadze puts forward and solves definitely in his creative work. At the same time, he works as an art theorist. He investigates questions of colours basing on Goethe' theory of colours, the issues of Georgian national flag and arms, the problems of sociology of art and synthesis of arts, etc.
As a creative many-sided person, Gia Bughadze is active in many fields with the wide range of interests. Grand themes and problems of humanity feed his imagination result a great number of series. Among them are very interesting series created on the subject of composers Wagner and Mahler as well as the huge paintings created on the subject of "Kartlis Tskhovreba". He is the author of the following series: "The magic flute", "Intuitions of Dante", "Apollonian tragedies", "Ahamkara", etc. Furthermore, Gia Bughadze is a monumentalist and the master of drama. He is the author of many grandiose works of mural painting in Georgia and abroad (By the way he has painted the church of Martin Luther in the former West Berlin).

Levan Choghoshvili is another representative of the generation of 1980s who has found himself in the portraits of 19th century's Georgian aristocracy. He revealed this topic completely in a new way on the impulse arisen from the old photographs and Tbilisi portraits of the 19th century.

The opening of borders let the information stream in and the Georgian artists became acquainted with the processes taking place in the western art. Other representatives of the generation of 1980s appeared: Gia Edzgveradze (who now lives and works in Germany), L. Laghidze, Gia Gugushvili, Ilia Zautashvili, etc.
This generation was followed with another pleiad of artists who gathered round Gia Bughadze and who called themselves Activariuses. Among them were Mamuka Tsetskhladze, Oleg Timchenko, Karlo Kacharava, Gia Loria, Niko Tsetskhladze, etc. Karlo Kacharava was one of the interesting figures among them. He stood out for his individual manner of painting (he passed away a few years ago). He felt sympathy towards the German culture so it's no wonder that his creative work is very close to German expressionism.
The art of present-day Georgia is as mixed and variegated as everywhere in the world.
The political and personal liberties had a strong impact on the artistic processes in Georgia: no theme, form and means are under the ban. Thus you can see everything here from the traditional art to the ultra-modem technologies and form: action, performance, happening are not unknown for the Georgian society. But, the processes are so mixed and contradictory that it becomes difficult to distinguish values and the inferior art from each other. Probably it will need a kind of ranging. The time will put everything in its place and them hopefully we will have the chance to talk about the Georgian art of the 21st century.

HET GE

HET GEORGISCHE TAPIJT  Manana Chitiashvili, kunstenaresse, Tbilisi - Breda Toespraak Georgiedag 2005, Amsterdam