Exhibition of First Georgian Female Sculptor

On June 29, GNM Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts presented the opening of an exhibition dedicated to the 115th anniversary of first Georgian female sculptor, Nino Tsereteli, which showcases 60 of her works.

“It is a real discovery how much this young artist managed to create,” said Davit Lortkipanidze, Director General of the Georgian National Museum. “Georgia is not indulged with a high level of sculpture, but Tsereteli left an indelible trace of artistic heritage for us despite her early death [at the age of 37]”.

“In those days, a Georgian female sculptor was a kind of revolution,” said Mikheil Giorgadze, Minister of Culture and Monument Protection. “She was multicolored and, besides sculptures, there are graphic works and theatrical costumes presented at the exhibition. I would like to extend my gratitude to all the involved parties who have worked on this exhibition”.

“We also had other female sculptor too, for instance, Tamar Abakelia and Elene Machabeli,” Gogi Khoshtaria, well-known art-historian, told GEORGIA TODAY. “Marina Ivanishvili is now a very promising artist. I would not divide sculptors according to gender. A sculptor is either good, mediocre or bad. Even though she was a pupil of sculptor Iakob Nikoladze [NOTE: founder of the Georgian school of sculpture, pupil of Rodin], she was absolutely individual and independent. Nino has her own peculiar feeling of plasticity. She should be included in the collection of Georgian sculptural portraits. I would point out the portraits of Khorava, Tsereteli, and Marjanishvili, in particular,” Khoshtaria said.

“The first exhibition of Nino Tsereteli in 1964 was dedicated to the 25th year since her death, whilst the second exhibition of 2002 was dedicated to the 100th from her birth,” said Lela Tsitsuashvili, curator of the current exhibition. “Yet, her works are little-known to the public. She was the last Mohican in Georgia of the avant-garde, after which totally different propagandistic art was born within decades of Soviet social realism. These were idols that were short of all sort of individualism or human values. Tsereteli managed to create a distinguished image of the epoch. Being one of the first students of Georgian Academy of Fine Arts, she avoided propagandistic art and created very lyrical and poetic icons in the genre of portrait.”

WHERE: Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts, Gudiashvili Str. 1, Tbilisi

WHEN: June 29-July 29

Maka Lomadze