Yearly Archives: 2012

On December 13 in the frames of a joint project the George Chubinashvili National Research Centre for Georgian Art History and Haritage Preservation and Georgian National Parliament Library held a round table and a publication exhibition under the name: “Pirosmani Artistic Form – Genesis and Essence” to celebrate the 150th anniversary of a self-taught Georgian painter Niko Pirosmanashvili.

On the initiative of the George Chubinashvili Centre, a three day jubilee event dedicated to the 85th

anniversary of Mary Karbelashvili (1927-2006), one of the prominent art historians, is held on November 28-30, 2012.

For decades Ms Karbelashvili worked at the Institute of Georgian Art History (now – The George Chubinashvili National Research Centre for Georgian Art History and Heritage Preservation).

The jubilee events are united under the title – “Heritage and the Present” and include:

1. Holding a jubilee session at Helen Akhvlediani House-Museum.

(On November 28; at 14.00; 12, Kiacheli St.)

2. Opening of the exhibition at the Sh. Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts.

(On November 28; at 17.00; 1, L. Gudiashvili St.)

3. Holding scientific sessions at the conference hall of Georgian National Library.

(On November 29-30; at 10.30-15.00; 7, L. Gudiashvili St.)

Mary Karbelashvili studied developing processes of modern and contemporary Georgian art. Her scientific heritage includes works of a general-review character, as well as monographic works, albums and separate articles about creativity of leading Georgian artists.

A small size informative “film” about Ms Karbelashvili`s ancestors, canonized brothers Karbelashvili will be shown at the jubilee session (Helen Akhvlediani House-Museum). Papers about M. Karbelashvili`s research and pedagogical work will be read (D. Tumanishvili, S. Lezhava); musical compositions will be fulfilled by young musicians; newly translated Shakespearian sonnets will be read (N. Ramishvili).

Exhibition “Heritage and the Present”

The exhibition embraces the works of those artists whose creativity was the subject of Mary Karbelashvili`s research activity.

Thus, it is the first step to reveal that an exhibition develops together with scientific research. Such point of view of an exposition emphasizes the scholar’s sphere of interests and the direction of research. In some occasions Mary Karbelashvili was the first who revealed the significance of creativity of different artists and laid the foundation to study their works even more fundamentally and thoroughly in the future.

Visiting the exhibition a viewer has an opportunity to trace the processes taking place in the development of different branches of fine arts of the 20th century according to the works of outstanding Georgian artists of several generations.

The exposition includes oil paintings, graphic drawings and sculpture, part of which has been exposed for the first time. This makes the exhibition ever more significant.

The exhibition makes it possible for the wide society to get to know and evaluate the development of Georgian art from the point which the scholar thought over, and at the same time watch the development of artists` creativity during a quite long period of time (the exhibition will last till December 12).

In the frames of a two day conference (November 29-30) 22 Georgian art historians will present their papers where the issues of old, modern and contemporary Georgian art will be considered.

Visual material of the exhibition and the issues considered at the conference go beyond Mary Karbelashvili`s scientific research time frames and introduce a lot of new material dating up to our days. That was the reason to give the jubilee event the title: “Heritage and the Present”.

The church of Oshki, one of the most important monuments of the medieval Georgian culture, is on the 2012 Watch list of the World Monument Fund. Oshki is located in historic Tao-Klarjeti (present Turkey). Special page was created on the website of the Fund: http://www.wmf.org/project/oshki. 

World Monuments Fund (WMF) is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and training. Founded in 1965, WMF is headquartered in New York. Every two years since 1996, WMF publishes the World Monuments Watch list, which aims at calling international attention to cultural heritage around the globe that is at risk. Inclusion on the list provides nominators and site owners with an important opportunity to promote their sites locally and internationally, to work towards improved site-protection, and to build community engagement in their preservation efforts.

In October 2011, WMF released its 2012 Watch list of 67 sites and monuments in 40 countries. One of them is the church of Oshki. The speaker of the project is Irine Giviashvili, a researcher from the George Chubinashvili National Research Centre for Georgian Art History and Heritage Preservation. The application was prepared with the assistance of David Khoshtaria and Markus Bogisch.

On October 12, 2011, the George Chubinashvili National Research Centre held a special press conference to inform the media about the decision of the Fund.