New Materials on the History of the Modern Georgian Ceramics

The origins of the modern Georgian ceramics go back to the activities of the Caucasian Handicraft Committee, its founder Alexander Piralov (Piralishvili) and painter Julius Straume, which was aimed at the creation of the objects of the traditional earthenware using modern technologies. Significant, in this respect, was the activity of the Mtskheta training-production school (with the 3-year course), established by the initiative of the painter Alexander Mrevlishvili and of the school principal, sculptor and ceramist Boris Shubuev. In this school, objects of the “national style” were made based on the sketches provided by the Committee or drafted by B. Shebuev, painting of the red clay applying restorative tiles was also practised, which soon enough turned the school into a successful enterprise, alongside preservation of the folk handicraft traditions. From 1922, the school was transformed into a ceramic factory and its head, B. Shebuev was invited to the Academy of Art of Georgia (present, Tbilisi State Academy of Art) for the establishment of a ceramic workshop, which started operation in 1925, under the artistic supervision of its initiator, sculptor Iakob Nikoladze (headed by B. Shebuev). In 1927, at the Faculty of Sculpture, Department of Ceramics was established headed by the engineertechnologist Alexander Pitskhelauri and in 1928, experimental chemical laboratory was added (headed by Mikheil Khananashvili). In 1928 already, students successfully participated in the exhibition of the Minor Arts (part of these works is kept at Sh. Amiranashvili State Museum of Fine Arts of Georgia of the Georgian National Museum); these objects – including clay statuettes – were still well sold. Preserved works evidence the tendency towards stylistic “modernisation” of the traditional crockery, even the influence of Constructivism, which is also discernible in the painterly expressiveness of multi-coloured, diverse, masterly tiles. Majority of the preserved objects are anonymous, identified are statuettes by B. Shebuev, Iak. Nikoladze, Giorgi Sesiashvili, Vladimer Grigolia, while a signature on a vase kept in the private collection is identified with that of Var[lam] Chargeishvili (as yet, nothing else is known about him). 1931-1933 had marked the period of the hardest crisis for the Academy of Art and further on, Academy, as well as Georgian ceramics had to face absolutely different tasks.