Still life is life

Still life has a long, not always great but interesting history: from ancient Egyptian tombs and Roman wall paintings till expressionism and photorealism.

In the "Academic system" in Georgia still life seems to be the main subject; the study program constantly glorifies the artificial setting, the composition of three dimensional elements, harmony of dead objects and the symbolism in-between the landscape and occasional models.

One of my memories from the Nikoladze Art College is assembling the still life setting in the class. Us students had to bring different objects from home (mostly from the kitchen, to produce an allegorical atmosphere), set them in the middle of the class and draw and/or paint them within two weeks, in hopes of understanding the "composition" and the perspective between the different apples. Sometimes we had to find something do while we waited for Nely, our favorite model.

One of my classmates from college and a dear friend, Tamo (Tamar Botchorishvili from Tbilisi, who really helps me to keep this blog updated) put me in touch with two young and enthusiastic artists, Tutu and Tinatin; they are working in the art field and both of them have a tendency to work in oil painting techniques and still life iconography. I chose to show some of their still life works not just for nostalgic memories from Nikoladze, but of course to show their own talents. I hope that in the future we will show more works by Tutu and Tinatin.

Tutu Kiladze: "Once more still life"

Tinatin Chkhikvishvili: "Apples"

Tutu Kiladze (1980) and Tinatin Chkhikvishvili (1980) graduated from Tbilisi State Academy of Art, department of fine art. They participate in different exhibitions in different galleries and exhibition halls in Tbilisi (Qarvasla, Artists' house, N-Gallery etc') and In 2003 they were part of the Art Villa Garikula (residence which promotes and hosts contemporary art, culture festivals and meetings in Kaspi region).