A new exhibition at ATINATI’s Cultural Center in Tbilisi celebrates the life and legacy of Georgian sculptor and teacher Rusudan Gachechiladze, who died on 26 November last year at age 87. The show features her plaster and bronze sculptures, including portrait heads that blend Modernist simplification with psychological depth, as well as sketches from the 2000s. Gachechiladze trained and taught at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, influencing generations of artists, and her work marks a key transformation in post-war Georgian sculpture, moving beyond Soviet-era realism toward formal reduction and international Modernist dialogue.
The exhibition matters because it highlights a pivotal yet underrecognized figure in Georgian art history, whose work bridges Soviet constraints and Modernist innovation. ATINATI, a non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting Georgian culture, uses its growing collection of over 3,000 works to trace the evolution of Georgian art from Modernism to the present. By preserving Gachechiladze’s plaster works—many never cast in durable materials—the show underscores the importance of institutional stewardship in safeguarding fragile artistic legacies and elevating women sculptors within a historically male-dominated field.