Abstracts - International Initiative for Georgian Cultural Studies

Gaston Buachidze
de l’Académie de Bretagne et des Pays de la Loir., France
Georgian Painting in European Context: Niko Pirosmani, Lado Gudiashvili, David Kakabadze
Together with Kiril and Ilia Zdanevichs, the artist of a French origin - Michel Le Dantu participates
in “discovery” of Pirosmani. Pirosmani’s artworks are exhibited in Paris (initiated by Andre Malaux) and
in 1999, in Nantes, where the high quality catalogue was published. This event was followed by the wide
reception in French Media. Le Dantu, Louis Aragon and other art critics compared Pirosmani to Giotto.
Picasso paints the Portrait of Pirosmani. The “actress Margarita” is said to visit Pirosmani’s Exhibition in
Paris to see her own portrait.
In 1920s David Kakabadze and Lado Gudiashvili enter the “The school of Paris” and participate in
many exhibitions. In 1925 Maurice Raynal dedicates his monograph to L. Gudiashvili. The latter is compared
with F. Goya’s “Caprices”. L. Gudiashvili meets Japanese Foujita, Italian Modigliani and Polish
Walishewski (Gudiashvili shares his memories of three of them to me). In 1997 Gudiashvili’s exhibition is
held in Paris, in National Assemble, followed by the publication of catalogue.
David Kakabadze publishes two of his Georgian papers in Paris (Paris, 1920-1923; “The art and the
space”, Paris, 1924-25) and one book in French (“Regarding the constructivist picture”, Chene Vert edition).
In 1973 Michel Seuphor shares his memories to me and discusses the art of D. Kakabadze. While
elaborating his conception on art, D. Kakabadze “leans” toward the art of Leonardo de Vinci. In 1982 the
collective catalogue - “avant-garde in Tbilisi”, published by Luigi Magarotto and his colleagues in Venice,
concerns L. Gudiashvili and D. Kakabadze. The landscapes of D. Kakabadze encompass the space between
his homeland - Imereti and Bretagne. According to the words of D. Kakabadze the authentic national art
contributes in creation of a universal art.
Gogi Khoshtaria
G. Chubinashvili National Center of Georgian Art History and Monuments Protection. Georgia
Binary Opposition in Niko Pirosmanashvili’s Works and Modernist Art
Niko Pirosmanashvili’s painting system contains structural features which are inherent to contemporary
art. This has been suggested by researchers of his art, including I. Zdanevich and V. Kuznetsov, but without
providing an in-depth analysis of this phenomenon.
One of the most essential characteristics of Modernism, as an epoch-making phenomenon, was the
revised perception of artistic unity through more polarized binary oppositions. Various art schools, movements
with methodological principles of their own and individuals have been interpreting the problem with
different degrees of complexity. The deep insight into the essence of this artistic problem as well as its perfect
solution offered by Niko Pirosmanashvili is immensely interesting and difficult to explain at the same
time. Having reconsidered the fundamental essence of binary oppositions—namely the fact that any picture
as a work of art represents a convergence of two semiotic planes into a single sign and the respective transfer
of a dynamic, borderless three-dimensional world into the material two-dimensional limited space—
contemporary art further increases the opposition and attempts to achieve artistic unity of a new type.
Stages and movements of contemporary art are mainly defined by the level of insight taken into the
aforementioned problem. The works by E. Delacroix, Impressionists and, especially, P. Cezanne were epoch-making
in this regard. Strangely enough, Pirosmanashvili’s art was shaped during the period (1880-
1890s) when P. Cezanne culminated his artistic endeavors. What is especially difficult to explain is that
Pirosmanashvili had no connection with Paris or the French school of painting. At that time in Georgia, only
early steps were made in the development of realist easel painting, and it was not until the early 1900s that
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