Zurab Gabunia’s work belongs to the group of artists of the 70’s of twentieth century. Main and probably the defining genre of his work is a landscape, and as for his technique – oil colors. Also, he uses acryl, pastel and charcoal for work.
Landscape in Zurab Gabunia’s work is characterized as diverse, it widely covers Georgia’s nature, history, present-day life (e.g, “Evening in the mountain”, “Winter in Svaneti”, “Early Snow”, “Boars in Oak-wood”, “Garikula”, „Morning of Imereti” and others). We can thematically group village, sea, urban landscapes in his works, which represent different parts of Georgia.
Zurab Gabunia was born on February 24th, 1948, in the village of Martvili region – Bandza (Samegrelo). He spent his childhood years here, he studied at school here too. Afterwards he moved to Tbilisi to live, where after graduating from I. Nikoladze College of Arts, he continued studying on the faculty of painting at Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, with the supervision of K. Sanadze, G. Jashi, K. Makharadze and A. Kutateladze.
The impressions of his closeness with nature he has gained in the course of his extensive travels throughout Georgia were expressed in the form of sketches in Tbilisi. The feelings take different shapes, colors and strokes. He is attracted by anything that is natural, pure and neat.
He is particularly keen on ordinary people and their lifestyle in places where one’s life is closer to the nature.
His art shows the artist’s great love of national traditions. He attempts to grasp the entire culture of his homeland and give us its general picture. His world is warm with the love he carries.
