Abstracts - International Initiative for Georgian Cultural Studies

MODERNISM IN GEORGIA
Tea Urushadze
I. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. Georgia
Peculiarity of Constructivism in Georgian Stage Design
The historical circumstances coupled with the processes unfolding in the dramatic arts and the emerging
principles of director-artist cooperation in the early 20 th century contributed to the development of decorative
systems of a new style of stage design. World art at the time was marked by the advancement of the
avant-garde movement. This movement affected stage design by fostering the development of expressive
theatre aesthetics. It was also connected to Constructivism, which characterized the Soviet art of the period
and provides an interesting segment of the history of decorative art.
The concept of constructivist stage design rests on two major principles. It implies the presence of a
monolithic structure throughout a performance and functional scenography. The latter implies giving functional
importance to adjustable elements attached to the main structure. Functional scenography builds on
the compositional unity of the design. Each element of such structure adds to the “narration” of dramatic
materials and formation of its plastic form. Constructivism also rejected the use of easel painting. It thus
played an important role in the renewal of stage art and found different manifestations on various stages
throughout Georgia.
The artists who were at the root of Georgian decorative art took advantage of Constructivism and developed
it in their own way by reorganizing the stage space, adding functionality to installed structures and
introducing the principles of a disordering stage floor, expressive conventionality, an intensive use of color
and light, laconism of expressive vocabulary and, most importantly, historical specificity and meaningful
content to this system of design.
The development of Constructivism brought about an extensive change to “object space” and contributed
to the establishment of a new environment and to the creation of new world outlook. The solutions
found at that time, as well as the emergence of features characterized by a mixture of styles and their transformation
into artistic forms set conceptual grounds which shaped the image of Georgian decorative art in
the years to come.
The growing interest in the works of stage designers active in the 1920s-30s is largely due to the Constructivist
ideas that manifested in different ways in the history of Georgian stage design, and which still
have a distinctive image and perspectives for further development.
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