MAELSTROM: Franz Marc, German Expressionism and Modernism in Georgia - Multidisciplinary Research Within the Exhibition Environment
2015

Concept and curator: Dr. Ketevan Kintsurashvili
Exposition design: David Janiashvili
Video & sound installation MOUNT RIVER: Giorgi Janiashvili
Supported by Goethe-Institut Georgien

Past shows:

Art Palace of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2017.
The Georgian National Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2015.

Video footage from the exhibition at The Georgian National Gallery, 2015:

Photo footage by Mirian Kiladze from the exhibition at The Georgian National Gallery, 2015:

Dr. Ketevan Kintsurashvili:

The exhibitions featured art works and artifacts by Wassily Kandinsky, Irakli Gamrekeli, Kirill Zdanevich, David Kakabadze, Lado Gudiashvili, Elene Akhvlediani, among others. 

"The flower opens at sunrise. Seeing his prey, the panther crouches, and as a result of seeing it, his strength grows. And the tension of his strength shows in the length of his leap. The form of art, its style, is a result of tension.” - August Macke, "Masks,” 1912- "The Blue Rider” Almanac.

The impetus behind the idea for the exhibition was a small-sized book published in 1926 in Tiflis, which contains Grigol Robakidze’s three early dramas: Londa, Maelstrom and Lamara. The cover design is based on the famous canvas with the image of a tiger created by Franz Marc in 1912. 

With these three dramas, Grigol Robakidze contributed to the modernization of Georgian theatre, and its universal success in the 1920s. All three plays were performed at Rustaveli Theatre. The directors were Kote Marjanishvili and Sandro Akhmeteli. The following artists worked on the productions of the plays: Irakli Gamrekeli, Kirill Zdanevich, and Lado Gudiashvili. It was in those years that together with other artists, they laid the foundation for scenic design as an independent professional branch. Subsequently, over the decades, scenography had been one of the strongest branches of Georgian art. The scenic works displayed at the exhibition of these artists, which includes David Kakabadze and Elene Akhvlediani, present the best achievements of Georgian avant-garde art in general. Along with other modernistic trends like Cubism, Cubo-Futurism, and Constructivism, the characteristics of German expressionism come to light in these works. This is also stipulated by the fact that in those years, the plays by German and Austrian expressionist dramatists, such as Ernst Toller, Georg Kaiser, and Franz Werfel, were staged at the Georgian theatre. In the works presented at the exhibition, both German artistic and literary influence, as well as German expressionist cinema is revealed. So it is no wonder that all of the above finds reflection in Georgian cinematography. 

Wassily Kandinsky, who along with Franz Marc, stood at the origins of German Expressionism, is presented at the exhibition with his early landscape. Together they founded the artistic association The Blue Rider. 

The exhibition emphasizes that through the images of animals, the expressions shown in them are one of the generators of the expressionistic trend. This is revealed in the the poem by Grigol Robakidze entitled – Tiger. 

A maelstrom is an old Dutch word, expressionistic by its content. It denotes a powerful current, dragging things in, and turning everything into splinters. Breaking-up and dissecting are the characteristic features of German Expressionism and Expressionism in general. This is because the trend shifts emphasis from the visual reality to the strong internal (emotional) experience. In the formal characteristics of the trend, the public’s state of mind in pre- and post-World War I Germany, found reflection. The creative production presented at the exhibition reflects a unified wave, which rose in the form of Modernism in Georgian culture and art, and left a trace that could not be wiped out – despite the attacks at the time launched to root it out.

Posters for the exhibition The Georgian National Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2015:

Badges for the exhibition at the The Georgian National Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2015:

The banner for the exhibition at The Georgian National Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2015:

The exhibition catalogue of MAELSTROM, 2015:

Text: Dr. Ketevan Kintsurashvili.
Design: David Janiashvili.
Publisher: KJ Art Books, Tbilisi, 2015.
Supported by Goethe-Institut Georgien.
Format: Hardcover
Size: 14.8X14.8cm
Pages: 106

The new publication of the book MAELSTROM, 2018:

Text: Dr. Ketevan Kintsurashvili
Design: David Janiashvili
Publisher: PWN, Warszawa, Poland, 2018.
Printing: Drukarnia Akapit, Lublin, Poland, 2018.
Translation & editing: A-Z.ge
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
Size: 270×270 mm
Pages: 104.

Exhibited at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Messe Frankfurt, Germany, 2018.

For more info visit: www.kjartbooks.com

The still image from MOUNT RIVER on the back cover MAELSTROM: