About The Exhibition “Anabechdi” by Sergo Tbileli
In late 2020, Sergo Tbileli started experimenting with screen printing technologies creating a concept for a new project & exhibition “Anabechdi” for which the main topic for the series is monumental poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”. As a part of the project, he reimagined the characters and the world they exist in. As well as creating a new portrait of the author of the poem Shota Rustaveli.
As he stated during the exhibition he sees this as a long-term series that will be split into 5 parts and spawn over a couple of years. Hence for the first exhibition, he took inspiration from the first arc of the poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” which describes a great hunt and introduces the reader to the world and the two main characters.
Sergo Tbileli has stated that in the next couple of years he will continue developing the series and evolving his screen printing technique to bring something new to the viewer and the world.
About The Artists – Sergo Tbileli
Sergo Tbileli is a prolific Georgian contemporary artist, he began his professional carrier in the early 70s in Soviet Georgia. While still pursuing his studies at the Tbilisi state academy. During his studies, he worked on monumental murals and sculptures all over the Soviet Union creating and contributing to the Soviet art scene. Learning different styles and evolving his style during his journeys all over the Eurasian continent. Financing his creative pursuits by working on Soviet state commissions.
During his early years, he worked a lot with the ceramic medium creating one of his first series of plates. he achieved fame with his series “Georgian Motives”, which represented his colorful vision of Caucasus and Georgia mountains landscapes. Selling out his show in Istanbul.
After The “Georgian Motives” series he further evolved his style and started working on his new works which combined his prior vibrant colors and movement with mythical subjects and topics on a grander scale. Some of his masterpieces from that era are “Venice Carnival” 2006, “Nude” 2005 and etc. During 2017-2019 he started to experiment more with mixed media and also created his own font “Farnavazi ” inspired by the medieval hand-drawn Georgian scripts. As a part of the project “Farnavazi”, he created detailed bronze sculptures for each letter.
In 2021 he started experimenting with screen printing technologies creating a new project & exhibition “Anabechdi” which the main topic for the series is the monumental poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”. As a part of the project, he reimagined the characters and the world they exist in. As well as creating a new portrait of the author of the poem Shota Rustaveli. You can see more artworks by Sergo Tbileli on our website or at Sergo Tbileli’s website
The Poem That Inspired The Series: Knight in the Panther Skin
The Knight in the Panther’s Skin is an epic poem by the Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli. It was originally written in the twelfth century and is considered a definitive poem of Georgia’s Golden Age, having parallels with the chivalric romances that were popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe.
The poem tells the story of Avtandil and Tariel, two friends, who are on a quest to find the object of love, Nestan-Darejan, an allegorical embodiment of Queen Tamar who reigned as the Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213. Tamar was known for her beauty and intelligence, and under her rule, Georgia prospered.The author was close to the queen and possibly served as her treasurer.
The oldest Georgian epic, The Knight in the Panther’s Skin gives us a tantalizing insight into the Georgian nation and their hero culture. A poem so beloved in its native country, that until the early twentieth century it was part of the dowry of every bride. And is still found at every Georgians home.
Whats in the Future for Anabechdi & Sergo Tbileli
When asked about the future of the series artist stated that he has already begun work on the next part for the series “Anabechdi II” which will cover chronologically the next part of the story and will showcase more of the world of “Knight in the Panther Skin”.
The Exhibition will be on view till the middle of May at the Grand Exhibition hall located in the center of old Tbilisi, Bambis Rigi 7.