Four Women, Four Realities - Exhibition at Georgian Museum of Fine Arts

These artists are as follows:
· Lana Gogoberidze
· Nato Sirbiladze
· Emma Zarapishvili-Khutsishvili
· Julie Robakidze.

None of them belongs to any group of professional artists or school of art. To them, art is everyday life. All four artists create primitivist and sometimes extremely individualistic art known in this field as Outsider Art. The universe, as portrayed by them, comes across as micromodels of sorts. An imaginary reality, generalized characters, a sense of timelessness, and the question whether their art is old or new.

Lana Gogoberidze’s bread figures and abstractions with peculiar forms, and collages, show this great filmmaker in an even more exciting light. The female experiences illustrated by Emma Zarkhutsi with India ink, Nato Sirbiladze’s series The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, and Julie Robakidze’s naïve Georgian thought create a common visual fabric that raise the following questions: Why do the artists turn to such a magical and dreamlike universe? Why is there so much simplicity in them, even though they speak of some of the most complex aspects of a human being. In what period were their works created? And do they reflect a social and political backdrop? At first glance, simple art, with its objective and exhibition storytelling, encompasses a dialogue between an individual and the universe, universal sorrow and insouciance, something that fundamentally counters the sense of simplicity found in these works.

The works by the four artists are displayed in private galleries, with numerous articles written about them, and they are showcased at global art fairs and group exhibitions. They are also familiar faces in narrow local artistic circles. Still, this exhibition allows the public to see these four women from a different angle, on a different scale. Interestingly, Nato’s illustrations for The Knight in the Panther’s Skin are about rediscovering the artist once discovered by us. Lana Gogoberidze’s oil paintings and shapes embody a brand-new take within her cinematic artistry. The totally refreshing naïve works started by Julie Robakidze in her eighties have already made numerous collections—and she has even had a solo exhibition. Emma Zarkhutsi represents Georgia in various global catalogs of primitivists. As for this particular series, an absolute rarity, it is from a private collection.

With this exhibition, the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts institutionalizes these artists, consequently writing new chapters in the history of Georgian art. Introducing the oeuvres of these four creatives to wider audiences will expand visitors’ horizons as they familiarize themselves with new names in the museum space—in a way, a continuous narrative of our collection.