Tamar Abakelia
Tamar Abakelia (Georgian: თამარ აბაკელია; also spelled as Tamara Abakeliya) (August 19, 1905 – May 14, 1953) was a Georgian sculptress, theater designer and illustrator. She was granted the title of Honored Artist of the Georgian SSR in 1942.
[edit] Family
Abakelia’s father, Grigol Abakelia, a chief prosecuting officer for the Georgian SSR, and uncle, Ioseb Abakelia, a leading Georgian tuberculosis specialist, were shot during Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge in 1938. She was married to a socialist poet and playwright Karlo Kaladze (1907–1988), who outlived both his wife and their only son, also a prolific sculptor Gulda Kaladze (1932–1974).
[edit] Biography
Born in Khoni, Imereti (then part of Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire), Tamar Abakelia graduated from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in 1929 and taught there since 1938. Among Abakelia’s works are graphic illustrations for Nikolay Tikhonov, Shota Rustaveli, David of Sasun, Vazha-Pshavela as well as stage decorations for the Rustaveli and Marjanishvili theaters and costume designs for the films Arsena (1937), Giorgi Saakadze (1942), and David Guramishvili (1945). Much of her achievements are in the field of sculpture. Noted for the dynamism of composition and artistically rounded forms, Abakelia was responsible for much of the progress of Soviet Georgian sculpture. The example is her series of sculptured friezes on the former Museum of Marxism-Leninism in Tbilisi, depicting the various phases of socialist upbuilding in Georgia (1936–37). Abakelia died in Tbilisi in 1953 and was buried there, at the Didube Pantheon.[1][2][3]
[edit] References
- ^ (Georgian) Shanidze, L., "თამარ აბაკელია" (Tamar Abakelia). Georgian Soviet Encyclopaedia, vol. 12, p. 12. Tbilisi: 1975
- ^ Mikaberidze, Alexander (ed., 2006), Abakelia, Tamar. Dictionary of Georgian National Biography.
- ^ Voyce, Arthur (1948 ), Russian Architecture, p. . [New York]: Philosophical Library
