David Kakabadze

On November 17 2009, large crowds greeted the opening of the Lado Gudiashvili exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery on Lavrushinsky Pereulok. Gudiashvili (1896-1980) was an outstanding 20th century Georgian artist; the current exhibition focuses on a short period of his creative life, the five years he spent in Paris from 1920 to 1925. These were Gudiashvili’s formative artistic years, in which he established the creative identity he would retain for the rest of his life; the style he developed in Paris made his art especially original and attractive. Anyone who came to Tbilisi during the post-war years wanted to visit the enigmatic master’s studio - and visitors always left enthralled by the warmth of this highly cultured, silver-haired artist who seemed to open his creative secrets exclusively for them.