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Avant-Garde Art 1900-1937
Avant-Garde Art 1900-1937
Avant-Garde Art
1900-1937
Exhibition > Nana Shervashidze
In 1920, at the initiative of Dimitri Shevardnadze (1885-1937), the Founding Board of the Georgian
Artists’ Society established the Georgian National Gallery in Tbilisi. Later, this gallery became the
Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts.
D
imitri Shevardnadze was a pu- works were purchased for the National
blic figure and erudite who Gallery mostly from the autumn and
dedicated his entire life to ex- spring exhibitions held in 1919 with
panding and enriching the museum’s support from the government of the
collections. He dreamed of creating Republic of Georgia.
a museum in Georgia on par with the The 1919 report of the Georgian Ar-
Hermitage and the Louvre. Indeed, he tists’ Society reads: “The Society orga-
defined the concept of the gallery as a nized three exhibitions: The first, sho-
broad-spectrum museum that would wing old church mural painting was
include old and new Western and Eas- held at the beginning of 1917, and two
tern art. During its first years as the more were organized in 1919 – one
gallery and later as a museum, the ins- exhibition of contemporary Georgian
titution purchased Persian, Chinese, artists, in May; and the other showing
European and Russian masterpieces, the work of artists of various nationa-
unique Georgian medieval artifacts as lities who live in Georgia, in December.
well as works by Pirosmani and other The Society opened its exhibition on
Georgian artists of the time. 4 May with the first collective exhibi-
In addition to promoting older ar- tion of contemporary Georgian artists.
tworks, Shevardnadze and the Board of Artists of various schools presented
the Artists’ Society believed that new their paintings. Sculptures were also Dimitri Shevardnadze (1885-1937). Artist
Founder of the National Gallery in 1920
art should be a part of the gallery’s exhibited. Thanks to this exhibition,
collections. Purchasing works repre- more about the artistic potential of our
senting various schools of contempo- country has been discovered. The third
rary art was an early focus in the late exhibition, opened on 12 December,
1910s. In his youth Shevardnadze was 1919, was held in the Temple of Glory
fascinated by German and French art, to exhibit paintings and sculptures by
understood the most radical schools of artists of various nationalities living in
contemporary art, and was interested Georgia.” 1
in works created by local artists and In its 1928 report submitted to the
those who visited Tbilisi whose art was government, the Board of the Artists’
characterized by new artistic forms and Society underscored the need to esta-
methods of visual expression. Such blish a contemporary art gallery. “…A
28 GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM Vladimir (Voldemar) Boberman (1897-1977) GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 29
Landscape, oil on canvas, 1910s, Georgian National Museum
tion, exemplary art objects from con-
temporary Russia and other countries
will be collected in this gallery so that
the Georgian masses can learn what is
happening in this field outside Georgia
as well.” 2 From the exhibition of David
Kakabadze who had returned from Pa-
ris in 1928, abstract compositions were
purchased for the gallery collection. By
the end of the 1920s, the museum col-
lection had a substantial number of the
newest works of art.
Over decades, the museum changed
its name and location. In the 1930s, the
Museum of Visual Arts “Metekhi” was lo-
cated on a cliff, in the building of an old
prison next to Metekhi Church, looking
at Tbilisi from above. It was precisely in
the 1930s, years full of unrest and fear,
that the museum purchased the who-
le collection of Voldemar Boberman's
paintings and graphic artworks, thus
becoming a rare owner of the painter's
avant-garde creations. During the same
period, remarkable editions of books on
futurism were added to the museum
collections. In 1937, the founder of Ge-
orgian museology and highly eminent
public figure, Dimitri Shevardnadze,
paid with his life for his activities against
the demolition of Metekhi Church.
In 1939, after the museum of con-
temporary Western European art was
closed in Moscow, some of the master-
pieces of avant-garde art from its col-
lections were destroyed as being “for-
malist” and unacceptable for Socialist
society. Others were transferred into
the permanent ownership of museums
in the provincial towns of Russia and
in the Union Republics. In Tbilisi, the
Metekhi Museum collections received
Wassily Kandinsky (1861-1944). "Black Line", gallery is both a print outlet and a stage two avant-garde masterpieces by one
Oil on canvas, 1920, Georgian National
for an artist, a place where all new and of the founders of abstract art, Wassily
Museum (above); David Kakabadze (1889-
1952), Abstraction, Oil on cardboard,
valuable given by contemporary pain- Kandinsky: "Picture with a Circle (Bild
1926, Georgian National Museum (below); ting to Georgian art should be gathe- mit Kreis)" and "Black Line". The mu-
Mikheil Bilanishvili (1901-1934), Portrait of red. We do not have such a gallery… It seum also received the abstract com-
Giorgi Ghambarashvili. Oil on canvas, 1926, (gallery – N. S.) will be a very important position "Strange Bird" by the Italian
Georgian National Museum (next page). cultural institution where the Georgian painter, Osvaldo Licini.
public will soon be able to see that Ge- In 1954, a Russian Art Department
orgian painting is not quite as poor as was opened at the museum, headed by
many may think, and that it has a gre- art historian and archaeologist, Dmitry
at – and quite secure – future. In addi- Gordeev (1889-1968). He had actively
participated in the "Tbilisi avant-gar- artists and their heirs made it possible in life are forever a focus for human
de" movement in the 1910s and was a for her to purchase entire collections kind. This is why avant-garde in art is
member of the futurist-zaumnik group rather than single items. always topical, always attractive. The
"41°". Naturally, avant-garde art was hi- Paintings and drawings by Robert "Avant-Garde" exhibition at the Shal-
ghly regarded by Gordeev. He enriched Falk and Aleksander Shevchenko in the va Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts
the museum collections by acquiring Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine on International Museum Day on 18
graphic art works by Mikhail Larionov, Arts allow visitors to follow the deve- May, 2017 was a first attempt to pre-
N. Goncharova, K. Malevich, O. Rozano- lopment of these remarkable artists' sent the public with a comprehensi-
va and A. Volkov. As a result of an in- works. The collection of Robert Falk's ve view of avant-garde art from the
ventory of the graphic arts collection works, purchased in Moscow from his museum’s collections. It was also a
of the museum's Russian Art Depart- widow A. Schekina-Krotova, is espe- means to express respect and admi-
ment in 2013, a folder was found in cially diverse. The jewel of the collec- ration for those whose enthusiasm,
Dmitry Gordeev's archives containing tion is the painting "Paper Flowers" tireless efforts and sacrifices resulted
cubo-futuristic watercolors and an ad- (1918), which clearly shows a fusion of in the creation of the Shalva Amira-
vertising poster for "ARS" Magazine. Cezanne's artistic style and elements of nashvili Museum of Fine Arts avant-
In 1978, collections of the newly cre- Russian primitivism and cubo-futurism, -garde collection.
ated Department of the Art of Soviet making this still life particularly stri-
Republics were gradually filled with king. The synthesis of elements from
Russian avant-garde paintings and gra- radically different artistic schools fused
phic artworks. Department Head, Lia into a whole was a typical trait of the
1 Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts.
Dolaberidze (1928-2005), made a great Russian avant-garde. Memoir manuscripts collection of information
contribution to this collection by ac- Avant-garde is always contempo- collections. Collection 1 (Georgian Artists' Society).
Entry 1. Case 8. Page 1.
quiring objects from almost the entire rary – a revolutionary aspiration to- 2 Abesadze I., Bagratishvili K., "Dimitri Shevardna-
Soviet Union. Direct connections with wards renewal and radical change dze", Tbilisi, 1998, p.108.