Petviashvili, Rusudan

Rusudan Petviashvili was born in Tbilisi on January 25, 1968 in a creative family. Father is a sculptor, mother is a poet, playwright, he draws well.

The artist’s talent manifested itself in early childhood. Petviashvili began to draw when she was one and a half years old. Parents of Rusudan tried to maintain the originality of her talent, did not suppress it, did not try to squeeze the individuality of the girl into certain forms. As a child, Rusudan could take coal or a pencil and start drawing right on the walls of the apartment.

The paternal ancestors of Rusudan were physicists. The artist’s grandmother headed the department of the Institute of Geophysics of the Georgian SSR Academy of Sciences, she is one of the founders of the Georgian National Astrophysical Observatory. The uncle of the artist Vladimir Iosifovich Petviashvili is a famous physicist, co-author of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation, laureate of the I.V. Kurchatov Prize.

On the maternal side, 17 generations of the Rusudan Petviashvili family were spiritual leaders (priests).

In the Rusudan family, the eldest of five children. Her two sisters and two brothers also connected their lives with creativity: Mariam - an artist, works with wool; Salome graduated from the Tbilisi State Art Academy with a degree in “fashion designer”; George organizes exhibitions of Rusudan; Dimitri, like his father, is a sculptor.

In 1990, Rusudan married the head of the Tbilisi State Puppet Theater Teymuraz Badriashvili.

The first solo exhibition of Rusudan took place in Tbilisi, when the artist was six years old. About 100 works created in a unique technique were presented at the exposition: drawing a drawing without tearing off a sheet. In 1977 and 1981, two personal exhibitions of the artist took place in Moscow. At the age of 14, Rusudan already presented her works in various cities of France, including Paris.

In March 1987, Margaret Thatcher made the first official visit in the USSR in 12 years. The head of the British government expressed a desire besides Moscow to see other cities of the Union, choosing Tbilisi ^[1] . In Georgia, the politician visited the State Museum of Art, held talks with the government, took a walk around the old city, and also met with Rusudan Petviashvili, who presented Thatcher with one of her works.

Rusudan Petviashvili graduated from the Tbilisi State Art Academy, into which she was accepted without exams. In her student years, the artist created a number of iconic works, many books were published with her illustrations, including “Georgian Folk Tales” and “The Knight in the Tiger Skin” by Shota Rustaveli (with the joint publication Moscow-Paris), which became her thesis.

With the blessing of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Elijah II, a group of theologians, theologians and artists proceeded to create the largest manuscript Bible in the ancient Georgian language ^[2] .

Work on miniatures for the Gospel of Matthew took almost three years from Rusudan, who led the group of artists.

Today, a 100-kilogram Bible, made on calfskin parchment , exhibited at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi

The works of Rusudan Petviashvili can be seen in the State Museum of Art of Georgia (Tbilisi), the Batumi State Museum of Art, the Kutaisi State Gallery of Fine Arts.

Petviashvili’s paintings are kept in the family collections of political leaders George W. Bush, Eduard Shevardnadze, Ilham Aliyev, Margaret Thatcher, writer and screenwriter Tonino Guerra, diplomats Richard Miles and Fabrizio Romano, as well as at the World Bank Headquarters.

Pictures by Rusudan Petriashvili adorn the presidential palace of Georgia, she is the favorite artist of Mikhail Saakashvili.

“Rusiko’s work personally brings me into a very good mood,” said Mikhail Saakashvili. - Maybe someone thinks that art should be tragic, but I don’t think so. All these works depict the struggle between good and evil, in which good always triumphs ” ^[3] .

In 1981, a scientific conference was held in Saint-Yore (France) to explain the phenomenon of painting by Rusudan Petviashvili. Petviashvili is included in the book “2000 Prominent People of the 20th Century,” published by the Cambridge Biographical Center (Great Britain).

Since 2005, Rusudan has been an adviser to the International Charitable Foundation of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia “Revival and Development of Spirituality, Culture and Science”, which was established by the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II.

All works by Rusudan Petviashvili are made in the same technique: the drawing is applied without interruption from the sheet, with one touch.

The first works of Rusudan were done in pencil and felt-tip pen. With eight years, the artist began to paint with black ink and pen, and with ten - with a thin brush and ink.

Rusudan Petviashvili always sought to create large-format paintings, so she was looking for the perfect material that would not be limited in size, such as paper. Silk turned out to be such a material.

• Gold Medal and Diploma of the first degree at the 8th Republican Youth Olympiad of Arts (1975).
• Gold Medal and Diploma of the first degree at the 10th Republican Youth Olympiad of Arts (1981).
• Gold Medal and Diploma of the first degree at the 11th Republican Youth Olympiad of Arts (1983).
• Laureate of the Komsomol Prize for the illustration of the books The Knight in the Tiger Skin by Shota Rustaveli and Georgian Tales (1985).
• International Prize "Ambassador of Peace" (2005).
• "Order of Honor" of the Georgian Republic (2008).
• Presidential Order of Radiance (2011).

• Tbilisi, Georgia (Gallery of Children's Art) - 1974.
• Moscow, Russia (Palace of Friendship, House of Journalists) - 1977.
• Moscow, Russia (Permanent Mission of Georgia) - 1981.
• Tbilisi, Georgia (Gallery of Children's Art) - 1982.
• France, various cities (Days of Georgian Culture) - 1982-1983.
• Paris, France (Days of Georgian Culture) - 1983.
• Budapest, Hungary (State Gallery) - 1984.
• Tbilisi, Georgia (House of Artists) - 1984.
• Madrid, Spain (Days of Georgian Culture) - 1985.
• Moscow, Russia (XII World Festival of Youth and Students) - 1985.
• Biberach, Germany (Braith-Mali-Museum) - 1986.
• Kutaisi, Georgia (State Gallery) - 1987.
• London, UK (Roy Mails, Fine Paintings) - 1988.
• Dijon, France (World Industrial Exhibition, Pavilion of Georgia) - 1996.
• Tbilisi, Georgia (National Gallery) - 1997.
• Batumi, Georgia (State Gallery) - 2002.
• Borjomi, Georgia (International Festival of Art) - 2002.
• Iceberg, Germany (Spiegel Gallery) - 2005.
• Coesfeld, Germany (Munsterlandfestival-Part 1) - 2005.
• Bassano del Grappa, Italy (Palazzo Bonaguro Gallery) - 2006.
• Berlin, Germany (Buse Heberer Fromm Exhibition Hall) - 2006.
• Minden, Germany (Spiegel Gallery) - 2007.
• Minden, Germany (Spiegel Gallery) - 2009.
• Geneva, Switzerland (UN Exhibition Hall) - 2010.
• Geneva, Switzerland (Gallery Daniel Besseiche) - 2010.

• Girl and Hero (inaccessible link)
• Official site Rusudan Petviashvili