RADIO: James Hopkin - A Georgian Trilogy (bbc.co.uk)

(bbc.co.uk) Short stories by James Hopkin, inspired by his travels in Georgia in autumn 2008 

"As well as a new story, Jonke's Schnitzel, going out on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 28 December at 7-45pm as part of the station's Vienna season, there's also a chance to catch my Georgian Trilogy again on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Each part of the trilogy goes out three times a day. A Peacock in Sulphur (about the painter, Pirosmani) on Christmas Eve at 11am, 9pm, and, er, 4am. The Wurst Express from Kakheti on Christmas Day at the same times. Likewise, 3 times on Boxing Day, The Soul is Missing Fairy Tales! (a line from a poem by Galaktion Tabidze ) I mean, what else are you gonna be doing? " (James Hopkin)




On demand
This programme will be available shortly after broadcast 

Episode guide
  A Peacock in Sulphur
James Hopkin - A Georgian Trilogy Episode 1 of 3
Boxing Day 2014 11:00 BBC Radio 4 Extra
The first of three specially commissioned stories by James Hopkin. Niko Pirosmani was one of Georgia's greatest artists, but was it his art that killed him?
Read by Allan Corduner
Producer:Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.

The Wurst Express From Kakheti
James Hopkin - A Georgian Trilogy Episode 2 of 3
Christmas Day 2014 11:00 BBC Radio 4 Extra
The second of three specially commissioned stories by James Hopkin, inspired by his travels in Georgia.
It is summer 2008 and an impoverished Georgian poet is living in Berlin for three months. He is not expecting to hear shattering news from his homeland.
Read by Tom Goodman-Hill.

The Soul Is Missing Fairy Tales!
James Hopkin - A Georgian Trilogy Episode 3 of 3
Christmas Eve 2014 11:00 BBC Radio 4 Extra
The third of three specially commissioned stories by James Hopkin, inspired by his travels in Georgia in Autumn 2008.
A tour bus of journalists, writers and artists breaks down on the infamous military highway from Vladikavkaz to Tbilisi. It is only nine days since the Russian army withdrew from parts of Georgia, but there are rumours of a return.
Read by Ben Miles.

AUSSTELLUNG: Begegnung mit Pirosmani - Eröffnung am 21.10.2014 in Tbilisi

Die Georgisch-Deutsche Gesellschaft lädt herzlich ein zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung Pirosmani und die zeigenössische Kunst im Rahmen des Projekts Begegnung mit Pirosmani. 

Eröffnung der Ausstellung:

I. Teil - 21.10.2014, 16.00 Uhr, Georgisches Nationalmuseum, D. Schewarnadse National Galerie, Schota Rustavelli-Allee 11

II. Teil - 21.10.2014, 18.00 Uhr, Georgisches Nationalmuseum, I. Grischaschwili Historisches Museum, Tbilisi, (Karwasla-Gebäude), Sionistraße 8

TEILNEHMER:

Maler: Michael Augustinski, Inga Batatunashvili, Maka Batiashvili, Dorit Bearach, Joachim Böttcher, Heidi Brambach, Sophio Cherkezishvili, Levan Chogoshvili, Georges Fricker, Dieter Goltzsche, Karen Graf, Bernd Hahn, Volker Henze, Dagmar Hintzmann, Robert Honegger, Kote Jincharadze, Karlo Kacharava, Petra Kasten, Iosseb Kumsiashvili, Achim Niemann, Papuna Papaskiri, Bodo Rott, Thomas Schmidt-Dankward, Peter Schöttle, Matthias Schroller, Murtaz Shvelidze, Kakhaber Tatishvili

Zeichnerin: Doris Leue

Bildhauer: Valerie Buchow, Klaus Duschat, Vladimer Imerlishvili, Gudrun Kühne, Johannes Leidenberger, Andreas Theurer

Keramik: Nino Kalandia, Gudrun Sailer

Video: Volker Henze

Collage: Mischa Pitskhelauri

Fotografen: Archil Kikodze, Lasha Meskhi, Thea Nili

Schriftsteller: Shalva Bakuradze, Bela Chekurishvili, Ela Gochiashvili, Norbert Hummelt

Galeristinnen: Kathleen Krenzlin, Sigrid Walther-Goltzsche

Literaturabend im Rahmen des Projekts Begegnung mit Pirosmani [facebook.com]

Begegnung mit Pirosmani [facebook.com]

ART: Nataliya Goncharovaʼs Hay Cutting and David Kakabadzeʼs Cubist Self-Portrait; a comparison. By Inge Snip (adjapsandali.wordpress.com)

(adjapsandali.wordpress.com) The start of the 20th century saw a blossoming of modern art in both Russia and Georgia, where in an intense period of time a ʻcultural evolutionʼ took place. In Russia, in rejection of the West, through neo-primitivism, a search was initiated to find new shapes, colors and conceptions. However, in Georgia no such rejection of the West took place, nevertheless, through collaboration of different art movements the same goal was set.

Two major figures who influenced the development in modern art in respectively Russia and Georgia are Nataliya Goncharova and David Kakabadze. Comparing their artworks, will lead to a more comprehensive overview of the developments of those times, as Goncharova clearly had the desire to move away from the West, and Kakabadze, on the other hand, was obsessed with accumulating as much different views on art and sciences during his life. In the following essay two of their paintings will be analyzed, the neo-primitive work ʻHay Cuttingʼ by Nataliya Goncharova in 1910, and David Kakabadzeʼs cubist self-portrait of 1914. Although both artworks are very different in style, and both artists have made works which are more alike, it is interesting to compare these two, as Goncharova was very much interested in the works of Georgian self-taught artist Niko Pirosmanishvili and was not impressed by cubism on its own, while Kakabadze was experimenting with different styles at the same time.

Hay-Cutters – Nataliya Goncharova, 1910

ʻWe have learned much from Western artists, but from where do they draw their inspiration, if not from the East?’. In her 1912s essay on neo-primitivism, Nataliya Goncharova explains her rejection of the west and her interest in old forms of art. Already for several years before 1912, she and her partner Mikhail Larionov were intrigued with folk art, children’s paintings and self-taught artists, such as Georgian Niko Piromanishvili.

As explained by Goncharova, the need to go back to these naive forms of art, are necessary to find new forms.

Moreover, Goncharova was clearly inspired by her own countryʼs traditions and culture, and argued that the folklore colors and surroundings of the East and Russia should be part of modern art in order to create something new: ʻI aspire toward nationality and the East, not to narrow problems of art but, on the contrary, to make it all-embracing and universalʼ.

In her neo-primitivist work of 1910, ʻHay Cuttingʼ, her search for naive forms, the east and parts of the russian nationality can be evidentially traced back. Although the work obviously has elements of Cubism and Gauguin (a symbolist western artist), the rural sight depicts a very Russian subject. Furthermore, the colors, the lines, the flatness and the deformed characters show the spectator Goncharovaʼs inspiration for this artwork: primitive, naive art.


David Kakabadze, Cubist self-portrait, 1914 

Although both Nataliya Goncharova and David Kakabadze shared their love for the works of Georgian self-taught painter Niko Pirosmani, they differed opinion on several other subjects. For instance, Goncharova stated in her introduction on Cubism in 1912 that the artists had gone too much into theory and, in doing so, had lost the soul of art; however, David Kakabadze believed that in order to find the ʻtrueʼ art, one should study as much as one could about it. As he said while living in Paris in the 1920s: “First Theory, then practice”.

Kakabadze identified himself with masterʼs such as Leonardo da Vinci; as his desire was to not only be a painter, but also a philosopher and a scientist. His theory entailed that all is interconnected, and in order to understand all aspects of life, one ought to study all.

For him his artistic works were both a foundation for, as the result of, his search for knowledge: ʻPainting is nearly the philosophy of natureʼ.

His quest to learn as much about art and life in general already started in 1911 when he received a scholarship to study in St. Petersburg. Although he was more interested in studying at the Academy of Arts, he was not accepted there because his drawings were not well developed yet, however, he did not want to waste time and decided to study Physics. Nevertheless, he did take some classes in drawing at the studio of Lev Dmitriev-Kavkazskii, and painted among his famous ʻMother and Imeretiʼ and ʻSelf-portrait with pomegranatesʼ, his cubist self-portrait (1914).

It is important to note that Kakabadzeʼs cubism is different from European style cubism, such as Pablo Picassoʼs. Although there are some linkages with cubist artis George Braque when it comes to his analytical approach, Kakabadze was not concerned with the form, but rather with colors and unification of the forms. His obsession with color, the expressiveness of color and forms, are very distinct and could be categorized as a form of ʻGeorgian Cubismʼ.

Although both Goncharova and Kakabadze had several different influences, their artwork at times is comparable and at times is not. With Goncharova it is eminent that her artworks have influenced the manner in which Russian modern art developed before she left for Paris after the Bolsheviks took power. However, the influence of Kakabadze on the Georgian modern art field should not be disregarded either. Both had in common their desire to find new art forms, to find a true language of art, and both have attempted so in different ways – Goncharovaʼs neo-primitive and Kakabadzeʼs cubo-futurist influenced artworks are perfect examples of their strategy.

link: facebook.com/adjapsandali

ESSAY: What can be learned about the Georgian cuisine through the paintings of Nikolos Pirosmani? Written by Ulrica Söderlind (heritagedaily.com)

(heritagedaily.com) Since most of the research that has been done regarding Pirosmani and his work has been carried out by Georgians most of the research has also been published in Georgian.

Since I do not have enough knowledge in the Georgian language it means that the language barrier does not make it possible to read the books in Georgian. However there has been some attempt to present Pirosmani and his work in English and some new publications has been published in three languages, namely Georgian, Russian and English. There is also some websites dedicated to Pirosmani in English. I have due to the fact of the language barrier choosed to use three books that deal with Pirosmani in English.

Pirosmanis life, an overview

Among the researchers there are different opinions about Nikoloz Piromanashvili (Pirosmanis) birth and death dates and the place of his birth. Some mean that he was born in 1853 and others mean that he was born sometime during the years 1865-1866. Some researchers say he was born in the village of Mirzaani in the region of Kakheti in eastern Georgia, others mean that he was born in Shulaveri after the father Aslan Pirosmanashvili moved from the village Mirzaani to work in Shulaveri in the 1860`s as a hired hand at Akhverdi Kalantov´s vineyards. Aslan brought his already existing family with him to settle down at the Kalamtov´s, the family consisted of his second wife Tekle Toklikasvili, the elder son Ivane (Giorgi) and two daughter, one of the daughters was born before the move and Nikoloz eldest brother Giorgi passed away at the age of 15 in Shulaveri and the father soon followed. Shortly after the passing of the father Nikoloz mother fell ill and pasted away after a short while.

The researchers also parts what happened to Pirosmani after his father’s passing, some say he left for Tbilisi before his mother’s passing, while others say he left after her passing. Regardless of which Nikoloz and his two sister was left orphaning’s after the passing of both parents. One sister got married and the other sister, named Peputsa returned to Mirzaani. The information about Nikoloz childhood is scares but it is believed that the boy was taken into the Kalantrov`s family and they took him to Tbilisi in the mid 1870´s and the family treated him more like a child of their own then a servant, he even had his own room. He was taught to read, Georgian at first and then Russian and was often taken to the theatre and around this time he started to draw. Nikoloz read newspapers and magazines in the family library and listen to conversations that took part about politics, art and literature when the family had guests.

It seems like Pirosmani made his first steps towards independence at the age of 26 or 27 when he started a workshop and started to paint signboards along with Georgy Zaziashvili, the business ended in bankruptcy. Some researcher means that Pirosmani left his host family after having fallen in love with a young widow of the family and when he told her about his feelings in a letter and that they were not answered by the young woman he decided to leave the household.

After the business had failed Pirosmani accepted a work at the railway as a brakeman. He kept this job for three and a half years and because of his self-neglect and the hard working conditions on the platform of goods wagons ever open to winds, he undermined his health severely, he left the railway at the turn of 1893 or 1894. After the railway Nikoloz started up a new business a market for dairy products, milk, butter and cheese, first from a barrow and then from a small shop of his own. He decorated his shop with his own signboards. As earlier Nikoloz took in a partner into the business and for some time it looked like the business was in bloom and very fruitful, however several years later the both partners where ruined, this time totally. It is not known for sure or not if Nikoloz had a romantic relationship with a French chanteuse by the name of Margarita.

The documentation regarding Nikoloz life and whereabouts are scares after he went into bankruptcy but it is believed that he went to see his sister Peputsa in Mirzaani from time to time and build a new house for her. Nikoloz whereabouts in Tbilisi varied from time to time, it seems like he did not care much where he was living, for some time he stayed with his friend Bego Yaksiyev and other time he stayed at the places where he worked. This places was taverns and restaurants where he worked and painted the walls with different kind of motifs, he also painted a lot of billboards for the restaurant and shopkeepers. At time he rented so called lodgins, as a rule a cellar, a cubicle beneath a flight of stairs or a shed. An upended crate served as a table, and a few brick-propped planks as a bed.

A stump of a candle or a kerosene lamp furnished light. Eyewitnesses to his poor homes states that the walls was hanged with his paintings. Since there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the painter’s life the researchers are not in agreement over if the artist carried out his work at restaurants and taverns for food and drink, especially vodka in the latter case and if he was under constant intoxication of alcohol or not while he was working. Some say that he could not have been, since it would not be possible to paint the way he did under constant influence of alcohol. It seems however that he was a poor man that had found his calling and that he painted from his heart, mind and soul and did not take a lot of money for his work, he mainly asked the owners of the restaurants and taverns to pay what they thought the work was worth, most of the time the payment was low and he gave away a lot of his work for free as well. It seems sure however that he got paid in food and meals, at least for as long it took him to finish his work a part from the cost of the paint and other working material.

It seems like Pirosmanis first official recognition came in 1913 when some of his paintings was exhibit in Moscow, and in 1916 there was an one day exhibition of his work in Tbilisi, it seems like this two exhibitions was the only ones that was given during the artists lifetime. As well as there is different opinions about the birthdate of Pirosmani the date of his passing is also under debate, some say he passed away on the 14th of March 1919 at Aramiants hospital and was put to rest at the Petre-Pavle´s cemetery while other says the day of his passing was the night before Easter, 4th of May 1918 at the Mikhailov Hospital and was buried on the 9th of May at the Kukia cemetery, in a separate place for unknown diseases. Exhumation works have been undertaken at both the cemeteries twice in order to locate Pirosmanis grave, in 1963 and 1969, both search has been proofed to be unsuccessful. Since Pirosmanis grave seem to be lost he has been given a symbolic grave with a memorial in the Mtatsminda cemetery. What is agreed upon is that Pirosmani died miserably poor. Pirosmani is today considered to be the great national painter of Georgia and has inspired a lot of artist and painters after him such as for example Picasso. After his passing Pirosmanis paintings has been on exhibition 76 times between the years 1919-2008 all around the world.

Pirosmanis art

It is very uncertain how many works Pirosmani produced during his lifetime. According to eyewitnesses that claims to have seen a lot of the works that the painter carried out in Tbilisi he could have produced as much as two thousand pieces, these reports of the eyewitnesses are of course impossible to verify. Most of the work the artist did directly on the walls of the restaurants and taverns are most likely gone forever if there are not found under some whitewash when the restaurants or taverns will be under reconstruction.

For the moment there is no telling in how many frescos that has been lost by the artist hand due to the fact that they were done straightly on the walls of the establishments. Up on till this day a little over 200 paintings has survived and it might be so that more will come to the surface in the future among them paintings that today are considered to be lost. The artist himself seldom dated his own works, there is however an exception in the group of paintings between 1916-1917 that the artist himself dated.

Pirosmani did not have any special schooling and empirically he created and evolved his own style. It seems like that one of the sources that inspired the artist was rustic folk arts and crafts of Georgia that was transformed into the painters colour range, rhythm and spatial concept. It also seems like the artist was in some extent influenced by the Iranian influences that could be found in Tbilisi during his lifetime. It seems like Pirosmani took what inspired him and absorbed it into his own perspective and talent.

The tempo the artist painted in and which is the second factor of Pirosmanis style depended not only on the artist creative requirements and mentality, but on such purely external circumstances as the need to paint as much as possible and consequently to paint quickly. Judging from the few known facts Pirosmani painted with fantastic speed. For the smaller portraits he needed about 30 minutes, for the average size paintings three or four hours and for the bigger works, he needed but a day or two, it did not take him more than five or six days to paint his epics though they were several meters long and were populated with dozens of personages. The speed which Pirosmani painted is considered to be all more amazing in that he never had the time to prepare, to give thought to concept, composition and detail, to do any primary sketches and so on.

Pirosmani used for the bulk of his work Russian or foreign, primarily British factory made oil paints of high quality and standard except during the first world war when he was forced to work with white powder colour which he mixed with frying oil in jars in much the same manner as a house painter. All the artwork is made in oil, except the murals which he made in distemper straight onto the stuccoed and whitewashed wall devoid of any special treatment to ensure permanence.

He also used oils when decorating window panels. It is hard to say if he used wooden panels for support, there is nothing to suggest that he did. Most of the very few paintings done on an ordinary primed canvas were produced at an earlier stage, which shows that thought Pirosmami was familiar with canvas and could obtain it, he rejected it for certain practical reasons, painting mostly on sheet iron, oilcloth and cardboard. All of the painter’s signboards as well as two of his still life were painted on sheet iron. Though able to withstand heavy pressure the thick roofing iron used was powerless against corrosion which gradually eroded the paintings. Due to the erosion of the signboard the shop and restaurant keepers preferred to have new signs painted on an old one that had been scraped clean. During wartimes privation and ruin some of the signboards were torn down to make stovepipes. Pirosmanis own favorite medium was the black oilcloth that was not cheap.

The paintings on oilcloth has survived not only because the paints were of top quality and so swiftly applied without any over painting, but also because the oilcloth´s chemical composition is very similar to that of oils. In many of the artist’s paintings the black of the oilcloth has even been integrated into the picture itself. In such cases, either slightly touched up or not at all, it serves to bring out details that were to have been painted black in the first place. This represents a peculiar manner of what can be termed as topsy-turvy painting, not in dark colour`s on a light background but in light colours on a dark background. The colour frame Pirosmani used might seem to be narrow; sometimes he used five or six colours in a painting, sometimes only three. In general it can be said that Pirosmanis total palette consisted of cobalt blue, ultramarine, zinc or lead white, chromium oxide, pale ochre, cadmium yellow, strontium yellow, cadmium orange, English red, green, umber and black.

It is under discussion how many of Pirosmanis paintings that have survived, but at least 217 have been attributed to the artist, apart from these 217 paintings there are other paintings that are under scrutiny if they are made by Pirosmani or not. In the following I have only used the 217 survival paintings that has been attributed to the artist and not the once that are still under scrutiny. A part from the remaining 217 paintings there is also an existing inventory of paintings believed to be lost today, their number is 57.

 

Graph 1. The number of representation of foodstuff and categories in the 217 official Pirosmani paintings that are remaining today.

Graph 1 show the number of representations of foodstuff and the categories in the 217 official Pirosmani paintings that are remaining today, out of the 217 paintings 71 of them have depictions of foodstuffs in them.

The foodstuffs have been divided into the following categories; milk, chicken/birds, meat/animals, wine, grapes, sugar, tea, fish, drinking, dining, fruits, eggs, cakes, waterbarels, cook, mtsvadi, bread, pumpkin, nuts and vegetables. The depictions of wine and wine drinking are most frequently represented in the paintings with a little more than 30 times, depictions of drinking and dining follows closely after wine. Chicken/birds and bread are also in the top of depicted foodstuff by Pirosmani. Followed by foodstuff such as grapes, fish, vegetables, fruit, cakes, meat/animals, egg, pumpkin, milk, waterbarells, mtsvadi, nuts, beer, sugar and tea.

Graph 2. The number of representation of foodstuff and categories in the 57 paintings of Pirosmani that is believed to be lost today.

 

Graph 2 show the numbers of presentation of foodstuff and categories in the 57 paintings of Pirosmani that is believed to be lost today. The categories of foodstuff is as follows: Shaslyks (Shaslyks is the same dish as Mtsvadi in Georgian), chicken, snacks, fruit, wine, sugar, tea, fish grapes, drinking, dining and beer. Out of the 57 paintings that are believed to be lost today, out of the 57 paintings 14 have depictions of foodstuff according to the existing descriptions of the paintings.

If one compare Graph 1 and 2 it is a different between the different food categories, in the missing paintings fruit and dining is in the lead, followed by wine, drinking, shaslyks, chicken, fish, snacks, sugar, tea and beer. As well as for graph 1 and 2 the same painting can have several components of different group of foodstuffs in them so each category has been counted separately. There is a difference between the categories of foodstuff in the remaining paintings and the missing ones, there is 21 categories in the remaining paintings and 12 categories in the missing paintings. All of the categories in the missing paintings are also represented in the remaining paintings except the category snacks. It is not possible from the existing inventory of the lost paintings to try to find out what the snacks category existed of. Interesting to see in the two graphs is that sugar, tea and beer are amongst the categories that are the least depicted just once or twice.

When one is discussion the categories of egg and cakes, they appears in the same kind of motivs in Pirosmanis works and the overall theme is Easter. The most common combination is red eggs, easter cake, a table and the easter lamb. One of the remaining paintings with eggs and cakes that differs from the others is Pirosmanis version of Christs ascending to Heaven, in the foreground the eggs and cake is in focus.

To the left one of Pirosmanis version of Easter with the lamb, cake, eggs and table and to the right the artist version of Christ’s ascending to heaven with the cake and eggs in the foreground.

A difference between the paintings is that on the one to the left there is no wine as it is on the one to the right.

The Easter lamb painting is done with oil on oilcloth and Christ’s ascending is oil on tin (after Kobakhidze, without year:102, 110).

Two paintings that in this article have been chosen to illustrate Pirosmanis way of depicting feasts, both paintings are oil on oilcloths (after Kobakhidze, without year:169, 186).

What is interesting in the context of feasting is how Pirosmani choose to lay out the different foodstuffs on the table or the tablecloth.

If one study the compositions of the foodstuff and dishes in the remaining paintings Pirosmanis compositions are very similar to each other in this

category of paintings. Around the laid out tablecloth on the ground or on the table a group of guests or family members are gathered for a feat.

The beverage on this occasions is always wine, depicted either in big kvevris or in carafe, animal skins filled up with wine or/and from drinking horns. There is always bread on the tablecloth and then the different dishes can vary from each other in the paintings in numbers but there is always roasted bird (most likely chicken), some form of vegetables (in most cases radishes and pumpkins, sometimes cucumbers and spring onions), some kind of fish, mtsvadi (barbeque) and sometimes some other meat dish. The selection of dishes and foodstuff by Pirosmani is small and narrow in these paintings.

There is not that many still lifes by the artists hand that has survived that are categorized as still life, the number of them are only five. They are made with either oil on oilcloth or oil on tin and they differ from each other in size and contents. The still life in illustration 6 shows a lot of foodstuffs, mostly not processed, such a suckling pigs, birds, different kind of fishes, bodies of smaller animals such as lamb, mtsvadi, fresh grapes, pears, radishes but one also finds processed food such as sausage’s and wine in bottles. There is one still life that differs from the others since the depiction on that still life clearly is connected to Easter with the red eggs, Easter cake, fishes and wine.The major part of the paintings with grapes is from grape harvest and pressing the grapes directly after the harvest.

Closing discussion

This paper has been about how Georgia’s national painter Nikoloz Pirosmani depicted the nation’s food and beverage in his art and the paintings has been studied solely from a food and beverage perspective and not from an art critic’s point of view. Regardless of his own poverty Pirosmani did by no means use cheap paint or art material for his work. It seems like his employers paid for the material that was expensive foreign oil colours and the black oilcloth that he preferred to paint on if he was not painting straightly on the walls of the taverns or restaurants or if the employers wanted some other material for their signboards, such as tin.

As have been mentioned earlier in the text, it is an ongoing debate on how many of Pirosmanis paintings that has survived, but it seems that 217 of them have been acknowledge to his hand and at least 57 have gone missing that there is an inventory of.

Graph 3. The different kind of food categories in percentage in the remaining paintings by the hands of Pirosmani.

 

Graph 4. The different kind of food categories in percentage in the paintings believed to be lost according to inventory by the hands of Pirosmani.

 

Graphs 3 and 4 show the different kind of food categories in percentage in both the remaining paintings and the ones that are believed to be lost. The categories are made by me, maybe someone else would have made another kind of categorization for the paintings. Since Pirosmanis paintings are very rich in details most of the paintings contains more than one category of foodstuff, like the paintings of feast or/and dining and drinking or grape harvesting. Among the remaining paintings wine is peaking over the other categories while the peak in the lost paintings belongs equally to fruits and dining.

Grapes comes in a number six among the paintings that still remains among us today. I would have thought that grapes would have had a higher place since grapes are so vital to the Georgian nation as a whole, especially in the wine producing areas of the country. Still today the young members of the families take great pride and joy in participating in the grape harvest and the following event of pressing the grapes barefooted, I can imagine that it was the same or maybe even more so during Pirosmanis time period. The country itself has a very long history of winemaking, the oldest evidence of cultivated grapes dates to the sixth – fourth millienium B.C. (Shulaveri-Shomu Tepe chalcolithic culture).

Bread comes in as the third category in the remaining paintings and is totally absence in the missing ones. Bread is very common in Pirosmanis paintings, especially in the ones that are depicting feasts or dining and drinking. The most common bread that is depicted is what is called tone bread. Even today among the Georgians a meal is not considered to be complete if there is no bread on the table, regardless of the number of dishes that are placed on the table. The only times when bread is not served is when one eats Khachapuri, Khinkali or Rhomi.

The tone bread is baked in a special oven called ‘tone’ . This kind of oven is designed to provide very high, dry heat. Fuel for the fire is provided by charcoal which lines the bottom of the structure. In order to produce temperatures approaching 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius), bakers maintain a long vigil to keep the oven’s coals continually burning. At such high temperatures, the bread made in a Tone oven develops a very crisp outer layer without sacrificing moistness on the inside, the tone bread is mainly made when the customer’s order it. As well as winemaking have a very long history in Georgia, so does bread, wheat has been found at the same sites as the mentioned cultivated grape pips above.

The categories of eggs and cakes are missing in the paintings believed to be lost even if they can be found among the remaining ones. What are meant here is the red Easter eggs and Easter cakes that accompany each other in the paintings together with the Easter lamb in all the paintings accept Pirosmanis version of Christ ascending to Heaven, where there is no lamb, but wine, eggs and cakes. The paintings with the Easter lamb have been a subject for the researchers to comment on. Georgia was one of the world’s first Christian countries, and dates such as 337 A.D. and 319 A.D. have been put forward for the country’s adoption of Christianity, only Armenia was Christianized before Georgia. Even with the early baptism of the nation some say that the Georgian kept the pre-Easter custom of bringing home a lamb which they would adore with gaily coloured ribbons and feed on fresh, green grass; only for later to slaughter the animal for the Easter table. This custom which can be traced back to the pre-Christian era was integrated into Eastern Christianity´s rituals.

The lamb was viewed as the redemptive sacrifice. Today Easter is considered to be one of the most, if not the most important feast or holiday in the Orthodox Church and the main religion in Georgia and more than 65 % of Georgia´s inhabitants confess themselves to the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Patriarch is held in very high regard.

How religious Pirosmani was himself is hard to say since there is no records that tells about it and why he painted Easter in several paintings is hard to say, either he received an order to do so or he did it only for himself and by his own mind, regardless of the reasons it is difficult to assume that he was not a believer in the Christian faith. The tenderness that can be seen in the Easter paintings can be a clue or an indicator of Pirosmanis own personal believes. From the food perspective I find it very interesting that the artist painted the religious holiday of Easter but not for example Christmas.

Something that is striking in both graphs nr 3 and 4 is how few times Pirosmani depicted categories such as sugar, tea and beer, one can wonder why that is? Either he did not like this foodstuffs or he did not get any more orders to paint them, just one or two in each category exists today and specially tea is interesting since Georgia has been nation with a lot of tea farmers, especially during the Soviet era and has exported large quantities of tea. Georgians in general still drinks a lot of different kinds of teas.

Another thing that is striking when one study Pirosmanis painting from a food perspective, specially the paintings of the feasts or dining and drinking is that in those paintings no one drinks beer, only wine and that the composition of the meal in itself is more or less the same with bread, wine, some kind of vegetables, meat dish, birds. The selection of dishes in the meal of feast is very limited and that is surprising considering how a Georgian table is laid out today and it seems like the very large and big feast called “Supra” has a very long history in Georgia. What was the reason for Pirosmanis limited selection of dishes in this kind of paintings?

Not an easy question to answer at all, it might be so that the ones who ordered the paintings settled with this limited selection and considered the dishes to be genuine Georgians or the artist himself had no wish to depict a larger selection of dishes even if he could. But if this selection was considered to be representative for the genuine dishes of the country why are the national dishes such as Khachapuri or Khinkali and the sauce Tkhemali missing? That is a question that still remains to be answered. Today when one walks the streets of for example Tbilisi replicas of Pirosmanis paintings hangs at the door of Khinkali restaurants and also inside the establishments. Of course economy and money can be one valid reason for the limited selections of the dishes, simply that there was not enough money to pay for more paint to fill out the feast with. However I do not really believe in that since a lot of the feast paintings are large in size and have required a lot of paint and cloth.

Since some of the paintings that have survived are so called still life it is beyond any doubt that the artist was able to depict other foodstuff then the ones on the feast paintings, the still life´s differs somewhat from the feast paintings in that the food stuff on them mostly are raw and not processed in any way. One finds, raw fish, bodies of smaller animals such as lamb, fresh vegetables, nuts, pumpkin and fruits but also wine but no beer on them. The still life´s are stunning in its simplicity since the black oilcloth is what gives the foodstuff it´s glow, they foodstuff really stands out from the paintings due to the artists technique of using the black oilcloth, the contrast from the black background and the colour´s are really eye catching and that is most likely the idea in order to lure customers into the shops, restaurants and taverns.

Another thing that is striking in the remaining paintings is that there is no restaurant or tavern environments depicted even if Pirosmani spent as it seems most of his time in this kind of establishments. To conclude one can say that by studying Pirosmanis remaining paintings from a food perspective one get a small glimpse of Georgia´s vivid food and drinking culture, the glimpse that either the painter himself or his employees or both choose to show for their own reasons and there is no traces of the restaurant or/and tavern environments. To study Pirosmanis paintings from the above mentioned perspective gives an introduction to the foodway’s of Georgia and if one want´s to learn more about it one should continue towards other sources or go and pay a visit to the country.

My analyze and discussion of Pirosmanis work from a food perspective shall not be seen as a definitive results and I do not claim it to be since there is always an opportunity that more paintings will rise to the surface and can be acknowledge as work by Pirosmanis hand.

Written by Ulrica Söderlind

more:
Georgia’s food and drinking culture in the eyes of Nikoloz Pirosmani [pdf]
The Gastronomic Man And Georgias Food Culture [pdf]
An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Foodways of Georgia [pdf]
Introduction to the Foodways of Georgia [pdf] 

References

Chorgolashvili, Mamia, Pirosmani-so life begins with death, Tbilisi, 2011.

Kobakhidze, Nino (ed), Pirosmani, Tbilisi, without year.

Kuznetsov, Earst (ed),Niko, Pirosmani, Leningrad, 1983.

© Copyright 2013 Ulrica Söderlind, All rights Reserved. Written For: HeritageDaily - Archaeology News

EXHIBITION: Pirosmani 150 in Tbilisi (museum.ge)

Date: 23 July 2013 – 09 Sep. 2013

(museum.ge) The Georgian National Museum Dimitri Shevarnadze National Gallery presents a renewed exposition of Niko Pirosmani's works, considering public interest and special requests of visitors.

130 artworks by Niko Pirosmani are presented at the National Gallery from the collections of the GNM and Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts. Along with the works of Pirosmani (1862-1918), David Kakabadze's (1889-1952) and Lado Gudiashvili's (1896-1980) works are also exhibited in the gallery together with sculptures by Iakob Nikoladze (1876-1951) and photo materials depicting the sculptor's life and creative work from the National Archives of Georgia and Iakob Nikoladze House-Museum.

Niko Pirosmani is one of the outstanding and world recognized artists. For decades his name has been well-known outside of his native country-Georgia. Over the centuries, the growing interest in Pirosmani's works proves that this self-taught artist's paintings have never lost public interest and fascination.

From the beginning of the 20th century Pirosmani's artworks have been displayed at various exhibitions in Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Hungery, Lithuania, Belorus, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Turkey and many other countries.

Pirosmani's 150th anniversary will be celebrated in association with UNESCO according to a decision made at 36th Session of UNESCO's General Conference.

Address: Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery, 11 Shota Rustaveli Avenue.

FILM: Pirosmani (UdSSR 1969, 81 min, R.: Georgij Schenegelaja youtube.com)

Pirosmani (UdSSR 1969, 81 min, R.: Georgij Schenegelaja)

»Die naiven Bilder des georgischen Bauersohns Niko Pirosmanischwili (1868 - 1918), genannt Pirosmani, waren zu Lebzeiten verkannt. Als Hungerkünstler malte er in Kneipen und Läden und verweigerte sich allem materiellen Denken. - Poetisches Lebensporträt im Geist seiner Malerei.«

Der Regisseur wurde am 1937.05.11 geboren. Der Regisseur, Drehbuchautor und Schauspieler. Shengelaya George wurde 1937 in der Familie von Nicholas Shengelaya Regisseurin und Schauspielerin Nato Watschnadse geboren. Er ist Absolvent der VGIK (1961, Werkstatt und A.Dovzhenko M.Chaureli), seinen ersten Abschluss in 1963.Markierte in den Filmen Unser Hof im Jahr 1956, die Witwe von Otar, 1957, Geschichte über ein Mädchen, 1960, 1965 Andere Zeiten jetzt, in das Tal der Trauben kommen in 1976 und 1961 dr.S Direktor des Georgien-Studio-Film. Regie führt einen Workshop an der Tbilisi Institut für Theater und Kino Rustaveli Namen. In den Jahren 1991-1992. - Mitglied des Staatsrates von Georgien. Im März, 2001 gründete und leitete die politische Organisation der georgischen Partei Reben. Zusammen mit Russland.... weiter zu lesen

MAGAZIN: Georgian Art: The West’s Most Eastern Frontier. By Jennifer Walker (artesmagazine.com)

(artesmagazine.com) History’s Crossroads Bring Rich Cultural Heritage to Multi-faceted Land

Posted on 28 March 2013 | By Jennifer Walker

Fresco from Gelati Monastery, Kutaisi, 13th c.

The Former Soviet Republic of Georgia is unique in every aspect – from its varied landscape ranging from the Caucasus Mountains, the coast of the Black Sea and the deserts on the border with Azerbaijan – to its art.

Georgia’s location makes the country a crossroads of cultures, from the Asiatic influence of the Persian and Ottoman Empires, its occupation under the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. While geographers are uncertain whether to categorise Georgia as Europe or Asia, the country’s culture is distinctly European.

Vardzia Frescoes, 12th century

To chronicle Georgian history of art in a way that parallels the West is no easy task, especially since easel painting did not exist in the country till the late 18th century. However, Georgia’s own renaissance in the 11-13th centuries yielded some extraordinary fresco work to rival the churches in Italy to its 20th century avant-gardes who moved in the same circles as Picasso, Braque and Duchamp.

Early Georgian art is best characterised by its murals and sports some of the finest examples of frescoes from its time in Europe. It’s difficult to contextualise Georgian art without looking to the church – since Georgia declared Christianity the state religion in the 330s. The new state religion marked the important beginning into the development of arts and letters in the South Caucasian country. With Christianity spreading throughout the whole of Western Europe too, Georgia’s faith allowed the country to keep its ties with Europe and many educated members were acquainted with Western philosophy and literature.

Medieval Fresco of David IV, Gelati

During the middle ages, centres of culture and enlightenment were founded and some even gained international significance. It was also during this time that mural painting reached its zenith, where national schools with their own unique characters developed throughout Georgia.

While Georgian mural paintings show influences from Byzantine style, during their peak in the 11-13th centuries, Georgian hagiography really began to develop its own unique style that diverged away from the Byzantine forms.

The Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church promoted and sponsored the creation of artistic works of religious devotion, and the best way to get a feel for Georgian art is to travel the churches and monasteries of the country. Mostly, their subject matter includes iconography or hagiographies of Georgian saints, but works of a more secular nature do exist as well.

Interior of the Gelati monastery

The frescoes at Davit Gareji are perhaps some of the most interesting examples of Georgian art. The cave-hewn Davit Gareji monastic complex dates as far back as the 6th century, and grew over the area into a variety of cave monasteries that soon became Georgia’s sacred spiritual and cultural centre. The monastery also housed the once flourishing Davit Gareji fresco school. One of the most noted monasteries in the complex is the monastery of Udabno, whose school began in the 10th century. The earlier frescoes show a limited palette combined with an austere style, but over time the artwork evolved into brilliantly coloured, stylised murals. Nowadays, these frescoes decorate abandoned caves on the ridge side looking out towards the deserts in Azerbaijan. Many of these are in poor condition now, due to the Mongol and Persian invasion and the military practices undertaken in the area by the Soviet Union.

The cave city of Vardzia, a monastic complex towards the Turkish border, houses another excellent set of 12th century art. Instead of focussing on the sandy, desert inspired colours of the Davit Gareji School, its palette consists of deep blues and rich colours. The frescoes at Vardzia were almost lost during the Ottoman takeover of the 16th century, when they set up large wax candles in the church to burn them, however the soot from the candles deposited a layer on the murals preserving them. It was only centuries later when a Greek monk discovered the hidden frescoes behind their carbon protective layer.

Depiction of Hell, Gelati monastery

One thing that differentiates the churches of the Georgian Orthodox from those built in Russia is their stone construction. Where early Russian churches were built with wood, their Georgian equivalent were built in stone – for this reason, there was a development in the painting of wooden panelled icons in Russia, which did not pick up in Georgia.

Western art of the Middle Ages focussed predominantly on wooden panelled altarpieces, most notably in the schools of northern Europe like the Flemish school. While there is a difference in artistic style between the perspectives and palettes used in the Flemish school of art with the iconography from the Russian Orthodox Church, a cultural similarity between the two focuses on portable panels. Georgian churches, on the other hand, didn’t develop this tradition of icons; instead you’ll find frescoes on the walls of important churches and monasteries, like those in Gelati in Kutaisi or in Svetitskhoveli in Mtskheta near Tbilisi. In the Russian tradition, the iconostasis, the church alter, consists of tiers of icons swww.artesmagazine.comometimes going up to six rows, whereas in the Georgian church, this partition is only one story in height, where the principal image of the church is seen in the hemispherical half-dome of the church apse.

The expressions and colours of the frescoes are reminiscent of the murals from the early Italian renaissance, such as Fra Angelico. The frescoes of the Gelati monastery do not have the cold, hard lines of Byzantine iconography, yet are filled with expressive faces telling a story. In one chapel, there is a scene on a wooden plate depicting a hell that brings to mind the works of Bosch.

Damiane, The Annunciation, 14th century

While the paintings found in Georgia’s early renaissance, the names of the painters are in general anonymous, however in the 14th century there came a painter whose works hold a special place in the history and development of mural and monument painting in Georgia – Damiane.

The artist whose works were at their most important during the first half of the 14th century combined traditional Georgian artistic traditions with the more advanced artistic trends from Palaeologue Byzantium, Russia and the Slavic countries of the Balkans.

Damiane’s new style was characterised by a keen interest in space and perspective, with a moderation of religious asceticism and contains a greater deal of freedom in the composition of his paintings.

The style adopted by Europe marked the beginning of a new artistic aesthetic that opposed the current medieval outlook. In Italy we saw the beginning of the Renaissance, and even in the Balkans, Russia and in Georgia realism started to seep into the art and began to develop more humanistic traits.

In the work of Damiane, this vivid form of expression can be seen in his monumental painting, where the usual themes traditional themes in Georgian churches were expanded, bringing the life of local saints into church art. Instead of the canonical iconography seen before, these were being replaced with lifelike and expressive faces with natural proportions and deeper perspective. Classic renaissance art may not have made an obvious impression on Georgian art, but there are some hints to its influence.

Georgian artistic style diverted from European progression in the later centuries, most notably in the 17th and 18th centuries, due to the impact of neighbouring Persian influences. In the art of manuscripts and local architecture, Georgian art underwent a strong, orientalist makeover, until the influences of the Russian Empire in the late 18th century, just before the country was annexed in 1801.

The most important point in late Georgian art history came in the mid to late 18th century – the arrival of easel painting. Until then, traditional easel painting didn’t exist in Georgia, and while the rest of Europe experienced an evolution of easel painted works, whose style and artistic trends had centuries to develop, Georgia witnessed an acceleration and uneven development in the art form. This was due to political, economic and social factors that make Georgia different from any other European country. Because of the late arrival of easel painting into Georgian art history; its easel paintings show no clearly defined stylistic development or regularities.

The formation and development of Georgian easel painting came from Western European art, either from direct contact or via the Russian schools. Initially easel painting took on the form of portraits of kings and noblemen. These paintings were unsigned and were formal in their composition.

Two important influences on Georgian art in this era firstly came from the Roman Catholic missionaries from Italy during the 17th-18th centuries in Georgia – who came to the aid of their Christian brethren in a time when they were surrounded by Muslim countries. During this time, the very first Georgian-Italian dictionary and Georgian grammar were printed in Rome, not to mention that while many of the Italian missionaries were also skillful painters. There was a huge cultural exchange between the two countries, and many Georgians travelled to Italy during that time.

Of course the other influence is without a doubt, Russia. During the period of the Russian Empire, many Georgians emigrated to Moscow, where they formed their own colony and many artistic and scientific contacts were established between Georgia and Europe. In Russia, Georgian painters began to work with artists of different nationalities and had the opportunity to master the “European manner” of painting.

David Kakabadze, Imeretia (1917)

In the 19th century, the Tiflis Portrait School took shape, and Georgian art developed its own style, where the European techniques give way to influences from Georgian medieval painting. In the second half of the 19th century, Georgian artists begin to work professionally.

The most exciting part of Georgian art came much later, in the beginning of the 20th century when Georgian artists began studying in Paris.

Sculptor Iacob Nikoladze went to study with Rodin, and his works show a direct influence from the French master. Other homegrown artists at the time were making their name in Paris and in the European avant-garde circles; Pirosmani for example is perhaps the most famous Georgian artist.

Niko Pirosmani was a self-taught painter famed for his primitivist style. His paintings are bright with childish lines conveying themes rooted in Georgian folk culture. His work touched Spanish artist Pablo Picasso with his childish, naïve style and even influenced his work.

Tiflis born, Georgian-Polish Ilia Zdanevich became associated with the Dada movement in Paris. Zdanevich is classified father as pre-Dada, whose ideas were considered extreme by the Dadaists themselves. He collaborated in a variety of artist’s books along with Picasso, Max Ernst, Miró and other artists at the time, as well as having his works exhibited all around from MOMA to Tbilisi, along with his brother Kiril Zdanevich who was a cubo-futurist.

One of Georgia’s most respected artists from the 20th century, David Kakabadze, was not only a force to be reckoned with in his home country, but made waves in Paris too. He experimented in a range of styles from cubism to early forms of abstraction, and he published and displayed his works alongside Braque, Gris and Picasso – yet his name has been erased from the pages of Western art history. Kakabadze was a close friend of Duchamp and together they participated in a variety of projects. Alas, after Kakabadze’s return to Soviet Georgia his name disappeared from the Western art scene, and he was trapped into making his now famous “Imeretian landscapes” in an artistic environment where only Social Realism was allowed.

Throughout the era of the Soviet Union, there were always artists who tried to rebel against the constraints of Social Realism, yet many avant-garde Georgian artists died in the Stalinist purges or took to Social Realism as a way to survive. Now that the Soviet Union has fallen, Georgia’s artistic life is thriving again, with many young and exciting artists coming out of the woodwork unafraid of experimentation. It’s a part of the world that is heaving with raw passion, whose unique and ancient history is bound to put Georgia on the map in art history.

By Jennifer Walker, Contributing Writer

Author’s Note: I would like to offer a very special thank you to the National Gallery and National Museum, most notably to Nino Gedevanishvili and Mariam Dvali for their help with this article, and not to mention all the valuable knowledge on Georgian Modernism I’ve learned from the expertise of Nana Kipiani, and to Irena Popiashvili at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.