Zurab Tsereteli (1934–2025) was a Georgian and Russian painter, sculptor, and monumental artist, whose colossal works became landmarks across the Soviet Union and beyond. President of the Russian Academy of Arts (1997–2025) and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, he was both highly decorated (Hero of Socialist Labor (1990), People’s Artist of the USSR (1980), People’s Artist of the Russian Federation (1994). Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1976), the Order of Lenin (1990), and the State Prizes of the USSR and the Russian Federation (1970, 1982, 1996), and widely debated. From mosaic bus stops on the Black Sea coast to the monumental Peter I in Moscow and the 9/11 memorial Tear of Grief in New Jersey, Tsereteli’s art embodied the scale, spectacle, and contradictions of late Soviet and post-Soviet monumental culture.

His large-scale decorative panels and colossal sculptures are installed in many countries, including Georgia, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Brazil.

In 1958, he graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and began work at the Institute of History, Archaeology, and Ethnography of the Georgian Academy of Sciences. In the 1960s, he moved into the sphere of monumental and applied art: first as chief master of the Decorative Workshop of the Tbilisi Art Production Facility, later as artistic director of the Monumental Art Section of the Artists’ Union of Georgia.

During the heyday of Soviet monumental and decorative art, Tsereteli created numerous mosaic compositions, including bus stops in Gagra, Bichvinta, and New Athos. His first major all-Union commission was the pool mosaic Sea Floor (1969–1970) for the Lenin Memorial complex in Ulyanovsk, for which he was awarded the USSR State Prize.

In 1970, under his leadership, Georgian artists (Gogi Ochiauri, Merab Berdzenishvili, Nugzar Medzmariashvili, Gulda Kaladze, among others) created monumental and decorative works for the resort complex in Bichvinta. In 1980, he was appointed Chief Artist of the XXII Olympic Games in Moscow. From 1985, he headed the Department of Monumental and Decorative Art at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.

He was elected a member of the USSR Academy of Arts in 1988 and, in 1987, became chairman of the Union of Designers of Georgia. In the 1990s, he relocated to Moscow and became an influential institutional figure—serving as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador from 1996, President of the Russian Academy of Arts from 1997, and founder of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Tsereteli Art Gallery at the Manege in 1999.

He was decorated with the Georgian Order of Honor (1996), the French Légion d’honneur (2010), the French Order of Arts and Letters (Officer, 2005), the UNESCO Picasso Gold Medal (2007), and many other international orders, medals, and honorary titles. In 2003, by decree of Vladimir Putin, he was granted Russian citizenship for his services to the Russian Federation. In 2012, he opened the Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art (MoMA Tbilisi) in the former Cadets’ Corps building on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.

Selected works

• Mosaic bus stops — Gagra, Bichvinta, New Athos (1960s)
• Sea Floor — pool mosaic for the Lenin Memorial, Ulyanovsk (1970)
• Eternal Friendship — dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Georgievsk, Moscow (1983)
• Chronicle of Georgia — memorial complex, Tbilisi Sea (1985–2003)
• Good Defeats Evil — monument in front of the UN Headquarters, New York (1990)
• Break Down the Wall of Distrust — London (1990)
• The Birth of a New Man — Seville, dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage (1994)
• Victory Monument — Poklonnaya Hill, Moscow (1995)
• Monument to Peter I — Moscow, celebrating the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy (1997)
• Monument to Charles de Gaulle — Moscow (2005)
• Tear of Grief — 9/11 Memorial, New Jersey (2005)
• The Birth of the New World — Columbus monument, Puerto Rico (2016)
• In a Healthy Body, a Healthy Spirit — sculpture of Vladimir Putin in a judo gi, Tsereteli Gallery, Moscow (2004)
• Monuments to Yuri Luzhkov — Luzhkov as Janitor, Luzhkov as Super-Athlete, Tsereteli Gallery, Moscow
• sources: https://www.forbes.ru/forbeslife/535671-ot-petra-i-do-konej-na-maneznoj-plosadi-glavnye-raboty-zuraba-cereteli?image=5https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Церетели,_Зураб_Константиновичhttps://kulturologia.ru/blogs/280419/42944https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/04/22/uorkhol-korleone