Background
GABASHVILI, Gigo was born on November 9, 1862 in Iiflis.
GABASHVILI, Gigo was born on November 9, 1862 in Iiflis.
1886-1888 studied at Saint St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and 1894-1897 at Munich Academy of Arts. Career-, created over 2,000 genre, landscape and portrait paintings. 1891 staged first exhibition.
In his youth influenced by I.Ye. Repin; visited Centr Asia, Italy and Greece. 1922 helped found Tbilisi Academy of Arts.
Until 1930 professor of this Academy. A number of his works are on display at Geo Art Museum.
One of the earliest Georgian representatives of the Realist School, his work is known for covering a wide range of subjects, landscapes and scenes of everyday life through orientalist lens. Although not widely known in the West, Gabashvili"s paintings are highly valued - the artist"s late 19th century painting The Bazaar in Samarkand, originally commissioned by Charles Richard Crane, sold for $1.36 million dollars at Christie"s in 2006. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire), Gabashvili was educated at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1886–1888) and the Munich Academy of Fine Arts (1894–1897).
Returning to his homeland, he made a debut as the first artist to have been honored with a personal exhibition in Tbilisi.
From 1900 to 1920, he taught at the art school operated by the Caucasus Society for Promotion of Fine Arts. Gabashvili was one of the founding professors of the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (1922) and was granted the title of the People"s Artist of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (1929).
Gabashvili remained a staunch realist and made known his opposition to left-wing art He died in Tsikhisdziri, Kobuleti Municipality, Georgia, in 1936.