Zaur Golava mastered the art of painting in the studio of Apolon Kutateladze at the Tbilisi Academy of Arts in 1970 and continued his studies in a creative workshop at the USSR’s Academy of Arts under the well-known socialist realist painter Ucha Japaridze. He was…

Koba Guruli was a sculptor and engraver and one of the founders of modern Georgian metal engraving. An Honored Artist of Georgia, he graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Art’s sculpture department in 1956. He is credited with introducing several new artistic and technical methods…

Painter, teacher, and honored artist of Georgia, Nana Meskhidze grew up in an artistic environment. Her father was a musician and choirmaster, and her mother was an actress at the Marjanishvili Theatre in Tbilisi. In 1963, she graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Arts, where…

Sculptor and teacher, Honored Artist of Georgia, Nelli Aleksidze graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Art’s sculpture department, where she studied under Silovan Kakabadze and Nikoloz Kandelaki. She primarily created small statuary—portrait sculptures and small compositions, with a particular focus on dancing figures. Her first…

Bidzina Avalishvili was a sculptor and an honored artist of Georgia. The painter Ucha Japaridze famously used his face for the image of Besik Gabashvili. He graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Arts in 1947, studying sculpture under Iakob Nikoladze. Most of his creations are…

Sculptor, Painter, Teacher, and Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi, he earned numerous honors and titles throughout his life. He was the honorary Artist of the Georgian SSR, a Full Member of the Academy of Arts of the Soviet Union, an Academician of the Georgian Academy of…

Konstantine Merabishvili graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in 1930, where he specialized in sculpture under Iakob Nikoladze. He began his pedagogical career there in 1934.  Merabishvili primarily worked in two fields: monumental sculpture and portraiture. In 1937, he received his first monumental…

Grigory Grigorievich Gagarin was a 19th-century Russian painter, illustrator, art historian, and architect; he served as an Ober-Hofmeister of the Imperial Court and as Vice-President of the Imperial Academy of Arts of Russia. He worked in the fields of painting, graphic art, illustration, lithography, monumental…

Sikharulidze Bathu is a sculptor and teacher. In 1985, he graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, where he studied under Irakli Okropiridze and Gogi Ochiauri. He later worked at the academy in the class of Professor Merab Berdzenishvili. Since 1994, he has been…

German painter, graphic artist, and orientalist, he graduated with a silver medal from the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts. From 1890, he joined numerous archaeological and ethnographic expeditions to the Caucasus and Central Asia. While living in Tbilisi (1912–1937), he created several ethnographic works depicting…

Vakhtang Kotetishvili was a philologist, psychologist, ethnographer, and sculptor. In 1911, he graduated from the Tbilisi Theological Seminary, and in 1914 from the Faculty of Pedagogy at the St. Petersburg Psycho-Neurological Institute. In 1918, he completed his studies at the Faculty of History and Philology…

Artist and public figure, the People’s Artist of Georgia, Ketevan Magalashvili was born in Kutaisi, Georgia in 1894. Between 1911 and 1915, she studied at the Tiflis School of Painting and Sculpture of the Caucasian Society. In 1914, she went to Moscow and began her…