Tbilisi museum display showcases art masterpieces, looks to future

Visitors and locals of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi can find masterpieces by globally-recognised artists including Auguste Rodin and Pablo Picasso alongside works by well-known local creators at the city’s Museum of Fine Arts over the next month.

Launched on Monday, the display Museum of Fine Arts — Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow showcases exhibits from over a dozen collections of the venue.

The exhibition will mark the first time in decades the works from all of the museum’s collections are displayed to the public in a single showing.

A 16th Century work ‘Ill-Matched Couple’ by painter Lucas Cranach. Photo: Georgian National Museum.

Among the pieces displayed in the space will be famous works by foreign artists including the 15th century mannerist painter Lucas Cranach and Russian expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky.

The display will also pay homage to some of the pioneers of contemporary Georgian art, lending museum space for works by 20th century painters Niko Pirosmani, Lado Gudiashvili and David Kakabadze.

In addition, medieval creations in embroidery, stone monuments and artifacts from local archaeological projects will find their place among the rich selection of artwork at the event.

These will include exhibits from the eastern Georgia’s Uplistsikhe archaeological works of the previous century, a cover page of a medieval Quran manuscript and a 5th-6th century stele from the town of Bolnisi in the country’s south.

A 15th Century Georgian embroidery for a Biblical scene of Lamentation. Photo: Georgian National Museum.

In a nod to the title of the exhibition, the event will also involve the presentation of plans for the future of the Museum of Fine Arts.

These involve a project for renovating the building that has fallen into disrepair over decades due to neglect.

Its archives and vaults are "unsuitable” for storing collections due to inability to maintain necessary climate conditions, said the Georgian National Museum (GNM) — a network uniting state museums across Georgia.

To allow for renovation works to commence, the staff and collections of the museum will be moved to an adjacent building space handed over to the venue last year.

Emptied for strengthening and restoration work, the current venue will be renovated to reach "international standards” of museum spaces before the collections are returned to be exhibited within its confines.

The exhibition will involve exhibits in various art forms including sculpture. Photo: Georgian National Museum.

The renovation project is carried out by the museum in cooperation with the GNM’s National Centre of Antiquities.

The project represents a "crucial stage” in the ongoing initiative of museum reform in Georgia that involves plans for improving and establishing necessary conditions for preserving exhibits at GNM venues.

The completion of the renovation of the Museum of Fine Arts will see the venue join museum buildings concentrated in the central part of the city, in fashion of the Museum Island in Germany’s capital Berlin.

The GNM has been in close cooperation with the Berlin State Museums network to prepare the plan for developing a district of closely situated museum venues in Tbilisi.

Originally built in 1830, the current Museum of Fine Arts building next to Tbilisi’s Freedom Square was turned into a museum over a century after its opening.

Now bearing the name of the Georgian art historian Shalva Amiranashvili (1899-1975), the museum joined the GNM network in 2004.

Its collections include "painted icons, vitreous enamel, jewellery, textiles, and unique works of embroidery”, with creations by Georgian and foreign artists featured in the venue’s stores.