Before the purge: when the avant garde swept Georgia – in pictures
For a brief period from 1918, modernist art and poetry flourished in Georgia – until the Red Army’s arrival ushered in censorship and the Great Terror of 1937
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When Georgia declared independence from the collapsing Tsarist empire in 1918, modernist art flourished. Here we see Gigo Gabashvili (centre) with his students at the Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts, established in 1922. The online festival Georgia’s Fantastic Tavern: Where Europe Meets Asia runs until 28 February
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Elene Akhvlediani (pictured second left with friends) was a major female figure in Georgian modernist art. After some years in Paris (with Lado Gudiashvili and David Kakabadze), she had to adjust to Stalinism after the Red Army invaded in 1921, occupying the capital Tbilisi. Yet she managed to retain her refined vision of landscape
Photograph: Literature Museum of Georgia
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Kakabadze was a leading avant-garde painters in Georgia, and a pioneer in photography and cinematography
Photograph: Album/Alamy
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From left: artist Dimitri Shevardnadze was a vibrant member of the Tiflis avant garde who helped establish the National Gallery of Fine Arts (1920), which bears his name today, and Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. He was executed during the Great Purge of 1937. Mikheil Chiaureli began as an innovative film-maker, but ended up making Stalin’s propaganda movies in the 1940s. Ketevan Maghalashvili is a major portraitist of the period. Lado Gudiashvili had to abandon his modernist art but navigated through Stalinist censorship
Photograph: courtesy of National Archives of Georgia
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Still-Life With Bukhara Cloth by Shevardnadze
Photograph: Mariano Garcia/Alamy
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A Tatar Fruiterer by Niko Pirosmani
Photograph: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy
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Sitting down: Vasil Barnovi (fiction writer), Giorgi Leonidze (poet, once a member of the Blue Horns), Iakob Nikoladze (sculptor and apprentice to Rodin), Tamar Abakelia (sculptor and stage designer). Standing: Kirill Zdanevich (artist), Valerian Gaprindashvili, Paolo Iashvili, Titsian Tabidze (the major Blue Horns poets). This was taken in 1924. Kirill Zdanevich and his brother Illia were in the heart of the Tiflis avant garde; they had many talents, as writers, artists, book and stage designers, and were remarkable innovators in all these fields
Photograph: Literature Museum of Georgia
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Suprematism stage design for a theatre play by Kirill Zdanevich
Photograph: Alamy
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Elene Dariani, a mystical poet supposed to have had a secret love affair with Iashvili, and even to have authored 14 pseudonymous erotic poems attributed to him. The secret that Dariani was a poet herself was kept until recently
Photograph: Literature Museum of Georgia
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Donkey Bridge by Niko Pirosmani
Photograph: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy
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Valerian Gaprindashvili and Titsian Tabidze in 1916. They were core members of the Blue Horn poets. Titsian was executed during the Great Purge
Photograph: Literature Museum of Georgia
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Mikheil Javakhishvili, one of the greatest Georgian novelists and short story writers of the 20th century, forged the new Georgian novel as an urban genre. He was executed in the Great Purge
Photograph: Literature Museum of Georgia
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A cyclists’ machine-gun unit at the division of the armoured vehicles of the People’s Guard, 1918-21
Photograph: National Archives of Georgia
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Georgian soldiers in Tbilisi, 1918-21
Photograph: National Archives of Georgia
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View of Tiflis, as Tbilisi was previously known, 1919-20 by Vera Rockline
Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty Images
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The Red Army invades Tbilisi on 25 February 1921
Photograph: National Archives of Georgia
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