We asked Sofio Chakvetadze, art historian and the director of ATINATI\u2019s Cultural Center, to tell us more about Gachechiladze and her work.<\/p>\n
The Art Newspaper: The ATINATI collection \u201cdemonstrates the continual evolution of Georgian art from Modernism to the present\u201d. What is the importance of Rusudan Gachechiladze\u2019s work in this story?<\/p>\n
Sofio Chakvetadze: Rusudan Gachechiladze occupies a very important place in the development of post-war Georgian sculpture, particularly through her transformation of portrait sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s. Her work introduced a new plastic language that moved beyond strict realism towards psychological depth, formal reduction and Modernist structure, placing Georgian sculpture into a broader international context. <\/p>\n
For ATINATI, as one of the leading institutions collecting and preserving Georgian art, it is essential to present artists like Gachechiladze, whose work connects the Georgian history of sculpture with contemporary artistic discourse.<\/p>\n
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Most of the sculptures in the show are in plaster, but there are also works in bronze, such as Woman with Baby (1980s) ATINATI Private Collection. Photo: courtesy ATINATI<\/p>\n
What influence did Gachechiladze have on Georgian artists of her time and since?<\/p>\n
Alongside her artistic practice, Rusudan Gachechiladze devoted many years to teaching at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, where she influenced several generations of young artists. Her approach encouraged greater formal freedom and psychological expressiveness within sculpture, particularly in portraiture, and she also played an important role in strengthening the visibility of women within Georgian sculpture. Her legacy continues to resonate today through both her students and the broader evolution of Georgian sculptural language.<\/p>\n
The first part of Gachechiladze’s career was when Georgia was part of the Soviet Union. What were the constraints and opportunities of working under that system?<\/p>\n
Like many artists working during the Soviet period, Gachechiladze operated within an institutional system that favoured official artistic conventions and limited experimentation. Unfortunately, many sculptural works from that era were never cast in durable materials or properly preserved, which is why a significant part of her legacy survives today primarily in plaster versions and sketches\u2014making the role of collections such as ATINATI especially important in preserving and researching this heritage.<\/p>\n
To what extent was Gachechiladze’s work influenced by international artists and developments? Is there a distinct Georgian character to her work?<\/p>\n
Her work demonstrates a strong awareness of 20th-century European Modernist sculpture, particularly in its simplification of form, geometrisation of the body and interest in archaic structure. At the same time, there is a distinctly Georgian sensibility in her sculpture\u2014especially in the emotional intensity of the portraits and the synthesis between monumentality and intimacy. This balance between international Modernist language and local cultural character is one of the reasons her work remains so significant today.<\/p>\n
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Later in her life, Gachechiladze made a series of drawings of Modernist sculptures, such as Family: Sketch for a Sculpture. ATINATI Private Collection. Photo: courtesy ATINATI<\/p>\n
The exhibition includes some of Gachechiladze’s work on paper. Can you tell us a little about these and her later work?<\/p>\n
The later works on paper reveal another dimension of Gachechiladze\u2019s practice, where she continued to explore sculptural form through drawing. These graphic series, produced mainly in the 2000s and 2010s, feature athletes, riders and religious and allegorical figures, rendered through expressive lines and constructive forms closely connected to Modernist sculpture. For ATINATI, it was important to exhibit these works alongside the sculptures, as they demonstrate the continuity of her artistic thinking and allow viewers to see the full scope of her creative vision.<\/p>\n