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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