National Gallery Pays Tribute to Amir Kakabadze
On March 10, at the Georgian National Museum Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery, the retrospective exhibition of the late Amir Kakabadze was opened, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the artist.
Amir Kakabadze was born to renowned Georgian artist David Kakabadze and Eter Andronikashvili. After graduating from the Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts, he lived and worked in Georgia, Russia and France.
Visitors will have the chance to discover Kakabadze’s multifaceted art in an exhibition taking up all four halls of the ground floor which showcases artworks created in different media: paint, graphic, sculpture, collage, pop art, film and theater painting. He was awarded at a number of film and theater festivals and his filmography counts, among others, ‘On the Way Home,’ ‘Old House,’ ‘Sea,’ ‘Georgian Chronicle of the 19th Century,’ ‘Autumn on Tbilisi Balconies’ and ‘Pirosmani’.
Art critic Khatuna Khabuliani writes: “Amir Kakabadze is an artist who visualized psychological formulas constructed on free nerve endings and surrealistic paradoxes. It is not easy to give perfect definitions for his oeuvre due to the variety and quantity he offered. It seems there are other meanings behind his art works. Enigma-codes or hidden contents of mysteries - that’s why his art always resembles a question which is never answered. “
“Amir and I were classmates and used to paint together as interns,” Gogi Alexi-Meskhishvili, renowned theater painter, told GEORGIA TODAY. “I painted his portraits and presented them to his family. It’s great to see such an exhibition organized in his memory. The wider public will get to know him as a painter at the National Gallery.”
David Andriadze, art critic, remembered Amir Kakabadze’s first exhibition. “It took place in 1988. I was a rookie then,” he told GEORGIA TODAY. “This exhibition will be a discovery for many art-lovers. However, there are no surprises here for me as I’m very familiar with his work. I even dedicated a book to him named ‘Allegories of Seeing Paintings’. All his works represent a review of world culture with which Amir was very well acquainted. This exposition is full of allusions and reminiscences from world art, from Diurer to Salvador Dali. He was verily intelligent and an amazingly modest painter who well realized the responsibility of being the son of the great David Kakabadze.”
Amir Kakabadze was an honorable artist of Georgia. During his life, he had 14 solo exhibitions in Georgia, Russia, Germany and France. His works were exhibited at: Gallery Vernisaje, Tbilisi, Georgia; the Georgian Embassy in London, Great Britain; the Bad Rappenau, Germany; the Central Artist’s House, Moscow, Russia and more, and he participated in many more group expos, including in Canada, Spain, Germany, France, and Russia.
The organizer of the exhibition is the David Kakabadze Fund. Supporters are: Tbilisi City Hall, the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, Artarea and two private companies.
Where: Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery, Shota Rustaveli 11 Ave.
When: The exhibition will last until March 29.
Maka Lomadze