Day 19 Tblisi, Georgia: 20C / 21C Art Day. Favourites: Niniko Morbedadze & Pirosmani.

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Day 19 Tblisi, Georgia: 20C / 21C Art Day. Favourites: Niniko Morbedadze & Pirosmani. Walking the glass floor.....





Georgian Museum of Fine Arts, Rustavelli Street.





Philanthropists, George (Gia) Jokhtaberidze and Manana Shevardnadze started collecting art in 1990s. They seem to have been / are pretty loaded and have attempted to keep relatively inexpensive Georgian art from the Soviet era together in one collection rather than being shipped abroad. On a massive scale.

The building itself, with a stair-and-escalator heart of glass started construction in 2013, building opened 2018. It’s an impressive building and it houses a huge collection over two large floors. Walking on glass floors is a curious sensation.

So big is the collection, with each artist comprehensively represented, it becomes a bit overwhelming.

There is a good balance of female and male artists. But in the subject matter, very few male nudes rest alongside a big dose of female nudes........ perhaps an indication of the Iron Curtain era that the paintings were created within. But it certainly isn’t a collection of Soviet Expressionist Art, with heroes and workers as the main content. A range from abstract to figurative, mostly paintings but some sculpture. See a few favourites in the photos.

A funky café, designer themed with coloured lighting in a white space with quirky pictures and artefacts.



A short way further west along Rustavelli is the National Gallery. You enter by the back door.....

There’s a small collection of Pirosmani’s pictures on display today. Many of his famous paintings e.g. The Giraffe, are touring in Europe at the Louisianna gallery north of Copenhagen. He is getting international recognition after, late in life, taking up painting murals and pictures in taverns around Tblisi for little reward, many of which were lost in WW2. His work is naive, akin to Lowry’s in UK, but often depicting rural environs and animals rather than urban scenes. His painting has definite weight and charm. (Don’t step over the red line like I did........... sirens shock the living daylights out of you).

Star of the day of our Gallery Goggling was an exhibition by Niniko Morbedadze (born in Tbilisi, 1957), showcasing over 100 works created from 1989 up to the present day.

The paintings are executed in acrylics and Indian ink. They are superbly detailed and tell stories within a fairy tale / Sci Fi world with a feel of Bruegel-meets-Comic Strip. But her work doesn’t seem gimmicky....... the faces of the people represented are engaging, there’s a pan-racial feel to them which entices the eye into more careful perception. They are mostly stocky in build..... people who graft. There is humour. There are graphic elements which subvert the photographic quality of the scenes painted.

She has a fair bit of her collection in the USA now and is becoming internationally recognised. Still prolific at 65, she makes me feel inspired to paint more.



‘Niniko Morbedadze studied at the Graphic Art Faculty of the Tbilisi State Academy of Art. Niniko Morbedadze made her international auction debut when her artwork “Beyond Time” was successfully sold at Phillips in London in July 2020. Throughout her career, Niniko Morbedadze collaborated extensively as a film artist with directors Mikheil Kobakhidze, Besarion Giorgobian, Nodar Managadze, and Giga Agladze.’



Afterwards, I hunt a for bit more Art Nouveau in the lee of the hill that the Funicular ascends north west of Rustavelli. All the 19C buildings are in a shocking state.........


A Black Lion IPA to finish off the afternoon in a Japanese / Georgian fusion bar with Japanese punk playing in the background.



Evening meal in Blue Fox on a quiet Sunday night (last night) in Tibilisi

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