Tbilisi, Georgia: The Georgian Ministry of Culture and Sports has congratulated the famous Georgian painter, Olesia Tavadze, on her 80th birthday.
Tavadze is a versatile and prolific artist who has worked in various fields of fine arts, such as painting, graphic art, book illustration, poster, and theatre-decorative art.
Tavadze was born in 1944 in Tbilisi, Georgia. She studied at Jakob Nikoladze’s Art School and Tbilisi State Academy of Art, where she learned from renowned Georgian artists Apollo Kutateladze and Farnaoz Lapiashvili. She has been participating in exhibitions since 1969, both in Georgia and abroad.
Tavadze’s work is diverse and original, reflecting her decadent imagination and artistic vision. She has created several painting series, such as “Self-Portraits”, “Still Life with Flowers”, and “Bear”, which showcase her mastery of colour, composition, and expression.
She has also painted and drawn landscapes of Svaneti and Khevsureti, two mountainous regions of Georgia, and Turkmenia and Central Asia, where she travelled in her youth.
Tavadze has also contributed to children’s literature, illustrating books by Shakespeare, Samuel Marshack, and Lev Tolstoy, among others. Her children’s book, “Bursunsul and Paskualina”, won the International Competition of Publishing Association – Step by Step in 2007 and was translated into 16 languages worldwide.
Tavadze has also worked as a painter and scenographer for various theatres, such as the Georgian Dass of Circus, the Russian Theater of Teen Audience in Tbilisi, the Miniature Theater, the Batumi Theater, and the Gela Kandelaki Theater of Shadow. She also designed costumes for the Georgian state ensemble “Rero” in 1975.
In addition, Tavadze has been involved in the applied art department, creating handmade dolls and original costumes. She is also the author of several literary publications.
Tavadze’s works are preserved in museums in Georgia (National Museum of Georgia, Museum of Culture) and abroad (Ashkhabad, Moscow, Baku museums) and in private collections of Tbilisi, Moscow, Kyiv, USA, and Canada.
The Georgian Ministry of Culture and Sports has expressed admiration and gratitude to Tavadze for her outstanding contribution to the Georgian culture and art. The ministry has wished her longevity and more creative success.
