Radish Tordia – 90
9 October 18:00 - 8 November 18:00
On October 9, 2026, at 18:00, the Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery hosted the opening of the retrospective exhibition “Radish Tordia – 90,” dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the artist’s birth.
Radish Tordia represents the generation of artists of the 1960s—the so-called “Sixties Generation.” This generation broke through the monotonous, obligatory boundaries of Soviet Social Realism and brought about an aesthetic revolution in painting. The artist’s attitude toward reality shifted: instead of ideologically determined themes, an individual vision came to the fore, along with the independent value of pictorial medium and the desire to express national cultural memory through a modern artistic language. In this process, Radish Tordia’s work stands out as a significant landmark marked by distinct individualism.
In 1956, R. Tordia graduated from the I. Nikoladze Art School, and in 1962, from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (where he studied under V. Shukhaev, U. Japaridze, and S. Kobuladze). The experience he gained in the studio of S. Kobuladze played a particularly crucial role in shaping his artistic mindset.
The artist’s early works are characterized by a classical compositional structure. They clearly demonstrate a unique synthesis of European academic painting and medieval Georgian wall painting, seen in works such as Dandelion (first version, 1968), Portrait of the Mother, Archaeologists (1969), and others.
Starting from the 1970s, a distinct transformation began in Radish Tordia’s art. The artist partially moved away from exaggerated forms and epic narratives to focus on more intimate, personal works. His main focus shifted toward purely painterly exploration—linear elements gave way to color symbolism and pictorial experimentation. It was within these artistic and aesthetic quests that the central motif of Radish Tordia’s work was born: the image of a woman, where delicacy, bodily form, and spiritual beauty unite through the language of painterly plasticism. In the late 1970s, R. Tordia also created a monumental work: the mosaic panels for the “Technical University” metro station in Tbilisi.
R. Tordia has participated in numerous international group and solo exhibitions and has received many local and international awards and prizes. The artist’s works are held in leading institutions in Georgia and around the world, including the Georgian National Museum, the Museum of Georgian Fine Arts, the Adjara Art Museum, Saint Petersburg museums, the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, and the Art Academy of Sardinia, as well as in private collections across the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Israel, and other countries.
At the opening of the exhibition, the catalog “Radish Tordia – 90,” published with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Georgia, was presented.
The exhibition will run until November 9, 2026.