Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikov’s Artworks

The National Gallery of Georgia is holding an exhibition of Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikov’s Artworks in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 10 January to 24 February 2017.

The Georgian National Museum Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery has dedicated the exhibition to the 125^th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikov and the 50^th anniversary of his death.

Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikov (1891-1966) is a prominent 20^th century Georgian artist. Of  Armenian heritage, he was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. He graduated in 1910 from the Tbilisi N. Sklifasovski School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture of Fine Arts Promotion Caucasian Society, and continued his studies in Moscow, Russia.

In 1913 he was conscripted into the army, and returned to Tbilisi in 1917 where he worked as an art teacher. Bazhbeuk-Melikov was influenced by the European Colourists, and Luminarism, after which his paintings became lighter. He liked the colourists of the Venetian School, Spanish painting, the French Romantics, and Impressionists.

The exhibition will showcase artworks preserved in the Georgian National Museum (Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts and Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery); Giorgi Leonidze State Museum of Literature; Georgian State Museum of Theatre, Music, Cinema and Choreography and private collections. The exhibition is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia, the Georgian National Museum, and the Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Holy Church in Georgia.

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).