Ketevan Matabeli Retrospective Exhibition: 9-20 December 2015

The Ketevan Matabeli ‘Retrospective Exhibition’ will be held at the Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 9-20 December 2015.

Ketevan Matabeli (1953-) is a Georgian painter and graphic artist. This exhibition, for the first time, shows examples of the phases of her work, including handmade books.

The exhibition includes her illustrations (1978) of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, The Master and Margarita.

In 1983, and later in 2009-2011, she illustrated Shota Rustaveli’s epic poem The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, and some of these paintings are on display.

The exhibition includes landscapes of old Tbilisi (Tiflis), which were created from old photographs. These works are called the Tbilisi Series (1988-1989).

Artists of Ketevan Matabeli’s time – the 1980s – were known as the last generation influenced by the Soviet Union and the first to be influenced by an independent Georgia. This means that artists were more exposed to life and art from other countries. In 1987 the works of four young Georgian artists – Ketevan Matabeli, Irakli Parjiani, Gia Bughadze, and Levan Choghoshvili – were exhibited in Palermo, Italy. This enabled artists to find their own sense of freedom – often pushing the boundaries of themes such as aggression, feminism, reality, and abstraction.

For her Tbilisi Series she used old photographs of her grandparents who were executed in 1937. She used family relics that were stored in a chest in the cellar. There were old editions of the Gospels and prayer – which she introduced into her art forms. She also made her own books, which she called folios. These handmade books were not intended to be read, but were symbolic of literature.

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