Tbilisi Art Palace of theatre, music, cinema, and choreography art

Tbilisi’s Art Palace has a permanent exhibition of art, sculptures, costumes, and other works dedicated to theatre, music, cinema, and choreography. Formerly called the Georgian State Museum of Theatre, Music, Cinema, and Choreography, Art Palace also holds non-permanent exhibitions – currently Shakespeare and Georgian Theatre (to 30 September 2016).

The magnificent building has its artworks on the second floor in several rooms and down a splendid stairway – which leads to the front garden and exit.

I like Andre Khan’s portrait of Nino Ramishvili (1910-2000), painted in 1961. Khan, born in Korea, lived and worked in Russia and Georgia. Ramishvili was a ballet dancer. In 1945 she created the Georgian Folk Dance Ensemble and was their lead dancer until 1972, travelling the world to perform.

The artworks includes the Valerian Sidamon-Eristoff (1899-1943) sketch for the play, The Spring Lamb (1922) which shows his well-known caricatures of everyday life. He also painted performances in Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Theatre and the Z Paliashvili Opera and Ballet Theatre.

There is also a costume sketch by Vladimir Kaplunovski (1906-1969) from the movie, From a Spark (1938). Kaplunovski was a Russian film director and production designer. The movie was never shot.

There is a costume for the movie, Keto and Kote (1948) by Parnaoz Lapiashvili (1917-1994). He was a painter at Marjanishvili and Rustaveli theatres and also worked on several films. There is a costume of Mahmudi from the movie Mamluk (1958) – the Mamluk (professional fighters) wore different uniforms, most of them in yellow and red, with brocade trousers, a long golden braided fabric belt and a turban of precious cloth.

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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