David Kakabadze's (1889-1952) creative life was a hard one even full of contradictions which were shown in his great desire to develop the national traditions and to raise them to the new quality on the one hand and in the desire to comprehend and master the "newest" trends in the West European art of the XX century on the other hand. These contradictions, that seem "irreconcilable" at first sight, reveal his solid character, his aim and his unique creative individuality.
It is impossible to imagine the whole character of David Kakabadze, of extremely persistent and at the same time deeply emotional man without taking into consideration the different sides of his creative searching.
First what attracts one's attention, after observing the whole creative life of the painter, is the vital interest to study the nature and the passionate desire to recreate its equivalent. This is also the variety of the quest for the artistic expression, dealing with different artistic styles and techniques, without spoiling the master's individuality and national principles of his art. At last it is the widest scope of his creative thinking and of his genre richness, which is expressed in the real nature, in the abstraction of the visible, in the visual rendering of the abstract; in portraits and self-portraits, solved realistically and cubistically, in still life, sea mountain and urban sceneries, in miniature, in mural paintings, theatrical-decorative art, in pure decorative compositions, in setting the films and designing the national festivals-these all seem to be in the power of the master.
He used oil, pencil, water-colors, metal, glass and other technical means with a great mastership. The peculiarity of his talent is revealed in his every work, in every period of his creative life, in which he planned his beforehand. First his task was inwardly "mastered", seriously decided and then it was fulfilled in the generalized artistic forms. In this way he created landscapes, searching for the equivalent to the nature. This is the explanation to the facts that he generally made a series, groups of works, in which we see different variations of working out one and the same topic, and we see no "alternation" or the stages in search of a better decision. If we take separately each variation, from this series, we'll see that it is an artistically fulfilled piece of art.
In order to understand the artistic peculiarity of Kakabadze's works, we must take into consideration the fact that apart from the gift for artistic thinking he had an inclination for the scientific research. Scientific analysis, experiment and generalization make his second nature. These two sources of his nature are revealed in his artistic practice, sometimes independently and sometimes are interlaced with each other. |
