Modern Georgian Female Artists K. Magalashvili, E. Akhvlediani, T. Abakelia, and N. Tsereteli

Abstract

The issue of gender equality has become very popular recently, however the names of modern Georgian female artists such as K. Magalashvili, E. Akhvlediani, T. Abakelia, and N. Tsereteli have long deserved to be widely acknowledged. The aim of my Master’s thesis is to highlight the impact of the Georgian women artists in Georgian visual culture in the beginning of 20th century. And to represent the process of gender evolution in visual culture of the country of Georgia through the changes of political climate in early Soviet times. During this period women were gradually gaining influence in social sphere. Soviet women artists in comparison with their western colleagues, in general had certain advantages: the full accessibility of higher education, unimpeded and active participation in artistic life. This reality was characterized by problems of other order, much more complex than sexism typical for western societies. The unprecedented cade of freedom of creation applied by the Russian avant-garde artists in the beginning of the 20th century became highly traumatizing for both male and female artists in 1930s already. In Soviet reality, there was no conflict of sexes: such clash was impossible in the reality where both parties were making desperate efforts to survive the great terror of those decades. Thereby the problems of representation and self-identification were different in Soviet space and thus should be regarded in somewhat different dimensions.