Culture Ministry honors memory of Irakli Gamrekel

Tbilisi, Georgia: The Ministry of Culture and Sports of Georgia honors the memory and immense contribution of the great Georgian artist, Irakli Gamrekel, for the development of Georgian culture.

One hundred thirty years have passed since the birth of the great Georgian artist, painter, graphic artist, theater and cinema artist, the head of the Georgian avant-garde scenario, Irakli Gamrekel.

Irakli Gamrekeli received education in art courses at the Tbilisi Boys’ First Gymnasium and Nikoloz Sklifasovsky School of Drawing and Drawing. Since 1920, he was actively involved in the creative life of Tbilisi, participating in the exhibitions of Georgian painters.

In 1921 a young artist presented illustrations done with watercolor at one of the exhibitions. Works – “Malaria” and “Dance of Death” – caught the attention of director Kote Marjanishvili, after which he was invited to play the script for Oscar Wilde’s “Salomea” in the new theater of Tbilisi. 

Soon Irakli Gamrekeli became the main painter of Rustaveli Theater and contributed greatly to the formation of distinguished Georgian theater soul. The artist’s cooperation with Sandro Akhmeteli was particularly fruitful and interesting.

The main direction of Irakli Gamrekel’s work is stage design. He artistically shaped the epochal performances of Georgian theater: 

Grigol Robakidze’s “Londa” (1922, director Kote Marjanishvili), “Lamara” (1930, director Sandro Akhmeteli), and “Malstrem” (1923-24, director Kote Marjanishvili); “Man-Mass” by Erns Toler (1923); “Man-Mirror” by Franz Verfel, “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare (1925, director Kote marjanishvili); opera staging “Zagmuki” based on Anatoly Glebov’s play Whit (1926); Niko Shiukashvili’s “American” Uncle” (1926); Boris Lavreniev’s “Breakthrough” (1928, directed by Sandro Akhmeteli); Sandro Shanshiashvili’s “Anzor” (1928, director Sandro Akhmateli); Walter Hasenclever’s “Man of Work” (1929); Shalva Dadiani’s “Tetnuldi” (1931, directed by Sandro Ahmeteli) and “From the Spark” (1937); Friedrich Schiller’s “Robbers” (1933, directed by sandro Akhmetel); Alexander Kornichuk’s “Bogdan Khmelinski” (1940); Carlo Golden’s “Bride With Lo Appish (1942) and others.

Irakli Gamrekeli is one of the founders of Georgian left-wing futuristic painting. He designed the magazines “H2SO4” (1924, the futurist magazine of which he was a member of the Red College) and “Leftism”. They also designed and illustrated the books of Iona Vakel, Grigol Robakidze, Simon Chikovan, and others (1926-1927 y.). 

In addition to the theaters named after Shota Rustaveli and Kote Marjanishvili, the painter was giving performances at the Russian Dramatic Theater named after Alexander Griboedov in Tbilisi, Tbilisi Opera, and Ballet, Leningrad’s Maxim Gorky in Leningrad and Odessa Opera and Ballet Theaters.

Irakli Gamrekeli performed until the end of his life at Rustaveli Theater.

It is worth noting that Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery hosted the exhibition of Irakli Gamrekel’s works from March 14 to April 14.