Sofia’s Graphikart Gallery will show an exhibition by the Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, whose monumental works can be seen in countries around the world.
curator: Stefan Stoyaov
Period: 19 October – 31 December 2020
Both praised and sharply criticized at the same time, the 86-year-old descendant of the Georgian prince Alexei Tsereteli has been provoking for decades with his work and is causing serious debates in the public space – from the topic of aesthetics in art to sharp discussions about history and politics. One thing is for sure, Zurab Tsereteli has his exceptional place in the world art space with his huge number of monumental works that can be seen in Russia, USA, England, Israel, Spain, Brazil, France, Thailand, Bulgaria, Georgia and do not leave no one is indifferent. His is the statue of Peter I in St. Petersburg, “Good Defeats Evil” (in front of the UN building, New York, USA, 1990), the 175 tons “Tear of Sorrow” (Byron, USA, 2006) in memory of those killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001, the monument to N. V. Gogol (Rome, Italy, 2002) and hundreds of others.
The large palette of Zurab Tsereteli’s works also includes ceramics, painting and sculpture. (www.zurabtsereteli.com). The name of Zurab Tsereteli is not unknown to the Bulgarian audience, as in 2008 his retrospective exhibition was shown in Plovdiv.
For the first time however, citizens of Sofia will be able to touch the work of one of the most famous contemporary artists in Russia and view his works in the capital’s Grafikart Gallery at 50 Zlatovrah Street from October 19 to December 31, 2020.
The audience will face for the first time his graphic sheets, monotypes and drawings, in which Zurab Tsereteli reveals his mastery in the line, creating images, that remain inextricably linked with the human – with the ferial, with the intimate. Moreover, these are works that make it possible to reveal the author’s specific monumental character and his inherent attitude to the features of the local, Georgian proper, with which he is connected from his own birth and growth as an artist.
Especially for the exhibition of Zurab Tsereteli the gallery “Graphikart” will receive his grandson – the artist Vasily Tsereteli, who is also an Executive Director of the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art – MMoCA. (www.mmoma.ru).
The Georgian artist has had the good fortune to communicate with collossi in the artistic life of Europe in the twentieth century such as Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Kenzo Tange and his creative path is littered with enviable success. Pablo Picasso shared about him in the 60s of the last century: “I see in Zurab Tsereteli a great painter, he has a wonderful sense of color, summarizes the form”, and David Siqueiros claims that “he has entered the vast expanses of art of the future, combining sculpture with painting. Zurab Tsereteli’s work has gone beyond the national framework and is gaining international significance“.
Zurab Tsereteli is President of the Russian Academy of Arts, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour of France.
The last exhibition of the famous Russian artist in Europe was held in early 2020 at the Saatchi Gallery in London, it was co-organized by Stefan Stoyanov, who is Zurab Tsereteli’s art dealer for Western Europe and America.
