Zurab Tsereteli: Conversations with Giorgi Chitaia

Zurab Tsereteli: Conversations with Giorgi Chitaia – Tbilisi art exhibition

The Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in Tbilisi, Georgia, is holding an exhibition from 1-10 December 2018 called ‘Zurab Tsereteli: Conversations with Giorgi Chitaia.’ It is an art exhibition and book presentation dedicated to the memory of academic and ethnographer Giorgi Chitaia.

Giorgi Chitaia (1890-1986) was born in Poti, Georgia, on 10 November 1890. After graduating from Tbilisi City College in 1907, he moved to Russia in 1911 to study at the St. Petersburg University’s Oriental Languages Department. In 1913, he continued ethnology studies in Germany. He returned to Georgia in 1917 and entered politics, quitting in 1921 to organize a series of ethnographic exhibitions to document the monuments, culture, and traditions of his country.

He founded the Ethnographic Department of the Tbilisi State University. In 1966, he opened a unique open-air ethnographic museum in Tbilisi, which continues today. The museum holds 70 replica households from the 17th to 20th centuries.

Giorgi Chitaia said of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, ‘Tbilisi is one of those cities with a vibrant life characterized by a versatile, rich, and original lifestyle, folk performances, festivals, sports entertainment, and competitions … Tbilisi was known for its bazaars, shopping centres, caravanserais, suspension balconies on Mtkvari river, eateries, workshops, and hot baths. Tbilisi was individual in its appearance and its inner realties, dressing styles, types, labour and social relations, which shaped the commonly known concept of Tbilisi Life.’

As a young artist Zurab Tsereteli (1934-) based his ethnographic sketches on Giorgi Chitaia’s ethnographic conversations and research results. This exhibition is the young Tsereteli’s period of searching for something to nurture his soul. He observed Georgian people, their life and spiritual culture.

This is Zurab Tsereteli’s tribute to Giorgi Chitaia. Tsereteli said, ‘I was lucky in life. I had unique teachers: graphic artist Charlemagne, a great artist Shukhaev, distinguished painters Japaridze and Kobuladze who, as young men, were trained in ethnography. Ucha Japaridze, rector of the Academy, advised me to also follow this path. Academician Chitaia left a deep mark on my life. I remember conversations by the fire with Giorgi Chitaia on moonlit nights. He made me look at the history of my homeland, its nature, people as well as my work, from different perspectives. Mr. Giorgi was inspiring me … in the world treasures that expresses universal ideals in national form.’

Giorgi Chitaia

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), 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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