Levan Tsutskiridze


Levan Tsutskiridze is a Georgian monumentalist artist, illustrator and painter of frescoes in the Sioni Cathedral, Tbilisi. He illustrated The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin, a poem, decorated in print with his illustrations, which was twice published in Berlin in German translation. It was also published in Tbilisi, Moscow, Yerevan and Japan. Levan Tsutskiridze is also the author of the design and illustrations of more than thirty books.

Early life

Levan Tsutskiridze was born in the small town of Khashuri. Most of his childhood was spent in a small village, Moliti, in mountainous Imereti. When he was eleven he lost his father who became a victim of the 1937 repressions. From that day the poverty, oppression and eviction of the family began.
Levan Tsutskiridze received primary education at Tbilisi public school. In 1946, he continued his studies by taking classes on painting and graphic arts at Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. He graduated the Academy in 1957. He had studied for twelve years, as from the very first year he was put on a black list; they were punishing him as a disobedient student. He was pushed back from the second academic year to the first, from the fourth to the first; from painting to graphic department; they persisted in punishing him as a "formalist".
The punishment went on even after he graduated the Academy of Arts and the post-graduate course too, now, by means of expelling his works from the exhibition list.
The artist's first personal exhibition was held in 1959 in Tbilisi, at the Union of Architects of Georgia. The exhibition proved his artistic manner to originate from the Georgian traditional fresco, at the same time bearing individual features.
In 1976, a large canvas called “Aspiration” was installed in the port of Poti. In 1977 a monumental picture “Kolkheti”- in the town of Senaki and “Cherishable” based on The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli at the House of Union of Writers of Georgia.
In 1958, for the first time, he participated in the republican exhibition with the painting ‘’Toast’’. The exhibition lasted the whole month, but his picture hung at the Blue Gallery for three days. His illustrations of The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin and painting ‘’Dance’’ suffered the same fate. In the end recognition finally happened, but with difficulty.
During 1960 and 1970, he was a professor of Tbilisi Academy of Arts and Polytechnic Institute of Georgia, while during 1971 and 2005 a professor of Chair of Drawing of Tbilisi Academy of Arts.
In 1984-88 he completed frescoes paintings on three walls of the Sioni Cathedral.
In 1997 ‘’Data Tutashkhia’’ by Chabua Amirejibi with his illustrations was published. Levan Tsutskiridze also illustrated the seven volume edition of Chabua Amirejibi works published by the ‘’Magticom’’ company in 2001.

Exhibitions