Niko Pirosmani: Black Light

Black light: a concise introduction to the beloved modernist and fabled painter

Georgia's most famous artist, Niko Pirosmani (1862-1918) is a fabled figure in the story of early modernism. The painter, self-taught and penniless during his lifetime, was heralded posthumously for his "naive" style. Pirosmani's paintings are simple-blunt, colorful depictions of rustic scenes gleaming against black canvas backgrounds, extraordinary icons of glowing intensity. This exhibition catalog showcases around 50 rarely seen Pirosmani masterpieces alongside a historical text on the artist written in 1926 by Kirill Zdanevich (who "discovered" Pirosmani); a fictional (but historically accurate) essay discussing Tbilisi as the Paris of Pirosmani's age by the Danish art historian and writer, Kaspar Thormod; an interview with the Georgian art historian Nana Kipiani and her artist husband Levan Chogoshvili by Swiss curator Daniel Baumann; and reflections on the artist by contemporary artists Thea Djordjadze, Mamma Andersson and Tal R.