Skip to main content

Georgian National Museum Week: Ketevan Magalashvili 120



To start Georgian National Museum Week and celebrate International Museum Day, the National Gallery launched the exhibition, Ketevan Magalashvili 120. The exhibition will be held from 17 May to 22 June 2016.

Ketevan Magalashvili (1894-1973) was born in Kutaisi and schooled in Tbilisi. In 1911 she entered the Painting and Sculpture School of the Society for supporting Caucasian Fine Arts. In 1914 she applied to attend the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Out of 430 applications, only 32 places were offered. She returned to Tbilisi after two years, without completing the course due to revolutionary events. She commenced work at the National Art Gallery in Tbilisi, and was awarded a scholarship by the Artistic Society to study in Paris.

Commencing her scholarship in Germany for five months, she then moved to Paris. In Paris from 1923-1926, with fellow Georgian artists, Lado Gudiashvili, David Kakabadze, and Elene Akhvlediani, she rented a studio at Campagne-Premiere and attended the free Colorossi Academy (established by Italian sculptor Filippo Colorossi). Paul Gauguin also attended the Academy. She returned to Tbilisi to work at restoring medieval wall paintings at the Metekhi State Museum of Arts. In 1937 she quit work to devote her time to painting.

Below is the wall painting – The Last Supper – a 10th-12th century fresco from the David Gareji Monastery Complex, created by Ketevan Magalashvili.


Following the basic iconography of the Tiflis Portrait School, which emphasized the face and hands, as well as the concept of the background, she furthered this approach, developing a modern approach to portraiture.  She died in 1973 and the age of 79, and is buried in the Didube Pantheon of Public Figures in Tbilisi.

The exhibition presents about 70 paintings and graphic works for the first time, gathered mainly from private collections and the Korneli Kekelidze National Centre of Manuscripts.

The portrait on the museum poster (above) is a self-portrait, painted in 1928.  Below is her 1945 painting of Georgia's Queen Tamar who ruled from 1184-1213.


Two of my favourite paintings in the exhibition are of T. Kakabadze (1924) with a  brown hat and of D. Jabua (1965).



Other favourites in the exhibition include Magglashvili's portrait of M. Kikodze (1965), of M. Chidasheli (1958), and her sister (A Lady in Red, 1947).




Her preferred subjects were women, but she also painted men, such as I. Orbeliani (1925) and A. Ishxneli (1958) with a book.






http://museum.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=69&info_id=13916


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).


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing
1 comment
Read more