Exhibition Z.K. Tsereteli - "Heart on the palette"

June 9, 2015 University of Fine Arts. Mimara Sinan (Istanbul) presents at the Center for Culture and Arts Tophan-i Amir an exhibition of works by the national artist of the USSR and the Russian Federation, the president of the Russian Academy of Arts, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador ZK Tsereteli - “Heart on the Palette”.

This is not the first exhibition introducing the Turkish audience to the work of the largest monumental artist of contemporary art. The previous one was held in 2005. And in a decade, the creator and admirers of his talent will meet again. The exposition included about 120 works of painting, drawing, sculpture and enamel, made by the master in recent years.

The organization of this exhibition is an integral part of the growing Russian-Turkish cultural cooperation in the field of scientific and educational activities, which involves, in particular, participation in scientific and practical conferences on pressing issues of contemporary art, as well as in joint charity events. An example of this is the workshop of Z.K. Tsereteli in the Art Gallery for the winners of the All-Russian contest of children’s drawings of children and adolescents with disabilities "Colors of the East: Russian children paint Turkey." Along with representatives of other Russian departments, Z.K. Tsereteli and Secretary General of the Turkish-Russian Cultural Foundation in Istanbul E.A. Turkeli took an active part in organizing the competition.

Zurab Tsereteli is an artist of a wide creative range, actively working and experimenting in various types and genres of fine art, paying tribute to the traditions of European classics and Oriental art. By the power of imagination and the inherent creative temperament, the master creates his own worlds and unusual spaces, organically fitting his characters into them. On the master’s canvases, everyday life blooms with bright colors, acquires a major sound. After many years, at a different level of artistic comprehension, the images that have been preserved in memory from childhood and youth again return to the author, contributing to the creation of ever new works. In the artist’s works, an amazing world comes to life with its own heroes - this is the memory of Georgia, its good traditions and people.

The portrait genre is widely represented at the exposition - this is a gallery of images of his friends, colleagues, acquaintances, ingenuous characters from the streets of old Tbilisi. Often they arise against the background of bright floral arrangements, eventually gaining more conciseness, monumentality and plastic expressiveness, as, for example, in paintings from the series “Old Tiflis”, “My Friends”, scenes of street festivals, etc.

No less remarkable is the portrait gallery, captured in an extremely expressive graphic series “Album Sheets”, made in the unique author’s technique of black and white silk-screen printing.

The sculptural compositions included in the exposition demonstrate excellent possession of various techniques and materials. Of great interest is the multi-part composition “Kazimir Malevich”, dedicated to the outstanding representative of the Russian avant-garde, made in the technique of punching on copper and enamel technique. They are organically supplemented by bronze reliefs from the Citizens series.

The impressive results of many years of searching and experimental finds in the field of enamel technology are presented in a series of colored volumetric enamels from the series “Argonauts”, “Croatia” and others, marked by an unusually expressive coloristic and compositional solution.

Solo exhibitions of the artist with great success were held in almost a hundred cities of Russia, as well as in many foreign countries - in Paris (France), Brisbane (Australia), Harbin (China), Plovdiv (BNR), New York (USA), Palermo, Rome, Ancona (Italy), Tbilisi (Georgia), Zurich (Switzerland), etc.

The exhibition runs on July 26, 2015.