The Russian Academy Of Arts

Dates: January 26 – February 16, 2024

Venue: The Italian Hall of I. Repin St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (17 University Embankment, St. Petersburg, Russia)

 

The Russian Academy of Arts in partnership with I. Repin St. Petersburg Academy of Arts present a solo exhibition of the People’s Artist of the USSR and RF, President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab K.Tsereteli. Timed to the 90^th jubilee of the master it features almost 40 portraits and still lifes produced in 2007-2023, as well as his graphic works fr om the “Sheets from the Album” series.

 

Zurab Tseretely is a world renowned artist and sculptor. In the 1960s he became famous as an artist-monumentalist, master of the synthesis in art, in various years in the USSR, Russia and other countries his talent revealed itself in sculpture, painting, graphics and enamels. The creative legacy of Zurab Tsereteli is enormous: these are more than 5000 and 10000 graphic sheets and enamels, as well as numerous monumental sculptural compositions. The man of great heart and human qualities he has been actively involved in the charitable activity, shares his rich experience with the younger generation of artists, gives master classes to children. In the 1950s Zurab Tsereteli majored in painting at the Tbilisi Academy of Arts wh ere his teachers were the distinguished artists – graduates of the Imperial Academy of Arts Vasily Shukhaev and Iosif Sharleman, who brought the high art culture of the Silver Age and passed on the artistic skills to their pupils. Zurab Tsereteli still remembers his teachers with gratitude.

 

Zurab Tsereteli’s work has been closely connected with the Northern capital. In honor of the 300^th anniversary of St. Petersburg Tsereteli presented as a gift his bronze monument to the first President of the Imperial Academy of Arts Ivan Shuvalov (1727-1797) which adorns the inner courtyard of the Academy’s historical building in the University Embankment. At the request of the public he donated to St. Petersburg his statue of Peter I placed in the Vasilievsky Island in 2006. The unveiling of his monument to Shota Rustaveli at the corner of the Prosvescheniye Prospect and Rustaveli street has been one of the major events dedicated to the 850^th anniversary of the Georgian poet in 2016.

 

Solo exhibitions of Zurab Tsereteli in St. Petersburg have always been of great success: in 2002 - at A. Pushkin Museum in Moika Embankment; in 2005 – at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall; in 2009 – at the State Russian Museum; in 2011 – in Konstantinovsky Palace; in 2019 – at the State Museum of Religious History. The new exhibition of works by the great master is a good opportunity to get acquainted with new facets of his extraordinary talent.

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