Paris in the 1920s: Nikoladze, Kakabadze, and Gudiashvili on display in Georgia

In addition to 130 artworks of Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani (1862-1918) the Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery (The National Gallery) in Tbilisi holds the works of three 20th century artists: sculpture Iakob Nikoladze (1876-1951), painter David Kakabadze (1889-1952), and painter Lado Gudiashvili (1896-1980). Nikoladze, Kakabadze and Gudiashvili are on display in the enormously large hall. It is interesting to note that all three artists lived in Paris in the 1920s - it was the place to be (and so thought American writers, such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald).

Iakob Nikoladze, from Kutaisi in Georgia, studied in Paris and worked as an assistant to Parisian sculptor Auguste Rodin – famous for sculptures such as The Thinker (created between 1879-1889) and The Kiss (1889). Nikoladze turned down the offer to accompany Rodin to America and instead returned to Tbilisi in 1910. He intended to emigrate to Paris in 1921, but was persuaded to remain in Georgia. The works of Iakob Nikoladze include Girl from the North (1906-07), made of white marble (54x66x45) and Kiss (no date), made from stone (57x51x34) – influenced by Rodin’s work.

David Kakabadze studied natural sciences at the St. Petersburg University and graduated in 1916, but worked as a painter in Tbilisi before living in Paris from 1919 to 1927. He is most noted for his patchworked depiction of agricultural fields and landscapes, mainly from the Imereti region of Georgia, which he painted before and after his Paris period. In the artwork, Imereti – My Mother (1918), oil on canvas (137x153), he has retained the landscape style as a background (upper right hand side), while focusing the detail on his mother.

Lado (Vladimer) Gudiashvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, but also lived in Paris from 1919 to 1926 with Kakabadze. He was greatly influenced by the work of Niko Pirosmani. The work of Gudiashvili includes Three Citizens (1920), oil on canvas (81x60) – top photo – and Toast at Dawn (1920), oil on canvas (99x80).

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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