Niko Pirosmanashvili

This book provides a fascinating comprehensive look at the life and work of Pirosmanashvili (Pirosmani) and one of the most interesting epochs in the history of Georgia, by way of a historical overview.

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Niko Pirosmanashvili comprehensively tells the story of the life and work of elusive Georgian painter Niko Pirosmanashvili (c.1866-1918), popularly known as Pirosmani, during one of the most interesting epochs in the history of Georgia. Key essays, both recollections by those who knew him and contemporary scholarship, explore his life as an impoverished artist living in Tbilisi. Charting his influence on the Georgian and Russian avant-gardists to the Modernists, including Picasso, and the parallels Pirosmani holds with Henri Rousseau and Vincent van Gogh, the artist's wider cultural impact is also examined from Georgian and international perspectives, past and present. Illustrations of Pirosmani's artwork, alongside a wealth of photographs from Georgia from the beginning of the twentieth century, make this a richly visual resource. With a foreword by Orhan Pamuk, this evocative book is the result of a meticulous process of assemblage by two artists dedicated to broadening Pirosmanashvili’s legacy and has been in formation for almost fifty years.