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UNIQUE ARCHITECTURAL TREASURE UNDER THREAT IN CENTRAL TBILISI
Georgia Today, Georgia
May 9 2014
Print version
Tbilisi's State Academy of Arts building on Griboedov Street houses
a series of unique 19th Century Persian-inspired interiors, but
the Academy's artistic treasures face destruction unless urgent
conservation works are carried out.
Lecturer Nino Kvrivishvili shows me around the building. From a dark
mirrored hallway, a carved wooden door opens into an enormous domed
ballroom, the ceiling of which is dripping with ornate mirror-inlaid
stucco work. Every spare inch is painted in exquisite detail -
partridges and swallows nestle under scarlet roses and peach-coloured
tulips - as the light glints off gilded chrysanthemums set among
shards of mirror. Under the dome, a bucket sits beneath an ominous,
swollen bloom of damp and on the floor nearby, a pile of plaster
rubble and broken mirror lies under a gaping hole in the roof.
The building which houses Tbilisi's State Academy of Arts was built as
the palace of the wealthy Armenian trader Arshakunian who commissioned
the architect Grigol Ivanov to construct the sprawling complex in
1850. Believing that he had partly Iranian blood, Arshakunian invited
Persian master craftsmen to decorate the interior in the contemporary
Qajar style, complete with several ornate mirror-halls and extensive
use of painted concave plaster-work.
"The building is one of only three extant Qajar interiors in Georgia,"
says Gogi Gegechkori, a former student at the academy and advisor to
Culture Minister Guram Odisharia, "the others being the small Firuza
Palace in Borjomi (recently restored) and the former Iranian Embassy
(now a private house) on Chonkadze Street. But the Academy of Arts
is by far the most extensive and exquisite example of this style."
In 1922, the building passed into the possession of the state, and
became the headquarters of the State Academy of Arts, one of only
three such institutions in the early Soviet Union (the other two
being in Riga and Leningrad).
According to Gegechkori, the Academy of Arts has faced destruction
before. When Nikita Khrushchev learnt that none of the three Soviet
Academies of Art were located in Moscow, he ordered the immediate
levelling of all three existing academies and the construction of an
academy in the Soviet capital.
A story has since circulated at the Academy, that the then-rector
Apolon Kutateladze - after whom the Academy is now named - undertook
a three-hour, closed-door alcoholic-fueled meeting with the Soviet
Leader. When the doors of the meeting room swung open, Kutateladze
was seen embracing the slightly tipsy Soviet Leader, who decreed
not only that the Academy in Tbilisi should be spared destruction,
but that it should be enlarged and expanded.
Now, according to the rector Tina Kldiashvili, this unique
architectural treasure is under threat from the more mundane problems
of damp and structural damage. The building was constructed without
laying deep foundations, which has left it vulnerable to earthquakes
and other environmental damage. There is also a problem with rising
damp from the basement, and run-off from the haphazard and decrepit
roofing, which has led to water-damage in most rooms. As a result,
chunks of plaster regularly fall through, leaving the painted interiors
exposed to the elements.
In order to tackle the problem, the Academy has established a special
fund to raise money for a comprehensive rehabilitation of the building,
a goal which has so far remained elusive. Relying largely on the
personal contacts of the fashion designer and fund president Sopho
Chkonia, the fund is trying to raise the 8 million Lari ($5 million)
required to carry out the three-and-a-half year renovation project.
During its ten-year existence, the Academy's Chancellor Kakha Trapaidze
says, the fund has attracted "only promises."
For Gegechkori, one of the founders of the fund, the physical decline
of the Academy building is symbolic of the deterioration of artistic
education and the classical master-apprentice academy system on which
the Tbilisi Academy was founded. "The fund must be devoted to saving
this system of artistic education first," says Gegechkori, "and then we
can save the building. We don't want it to be just another monument."
Whether this ambitious project can be realized is under doubt. Last
November, the Ministry of Culture signed a memorandum of collaboration
with the fund which says that in principle, the state should support
rehabilitation works. Currently, of the Ministry's total annual budget
of 80 million Lari, around 6-7 million is spent on the upkeep of 10
000 registered national monuments.
Still, Gegechkori is optimistic that after local elections in Tbilisi
in June, the City Assembly and City Hall will be able to better
coordinate efforts to raise funds for the restoration of the Academy.
Both the Ministry of Finance and the American Embassy have committed
to provide funding, and Chkonia is planning an exhibition in France
in July, which will bring the Academy's unique heritage to an
international audience. Meanwhile, holding a large chunk of original
Qajar plasterwork in her hands, Nino says she only hopes the Academy's
treasures can be saved in time.
By Joseph Alexander Smith
9.05.2014
http://www.georgiatoday.ge/article_details.php?id=12216
Georgia Today, Georgia
May 9 2014
Print version
Tbilisi's State Academy of Arts building on Griboedov Street houses
a series of unique 19th Century Persian-inspired interiors, but
the Academy's artistic treasures face destruction unless urgent
conservation works are carried out.
Lecturer Nino Kvrivishvili shows me around the building. From a dark
mirrored hallway, a carved wooden door opens into an enormous domed
ballroom, the ceiling of which is dripping with ornate mirror-inlaid
stucco work. Every spare inch is painted in exquisite detail -
partridges and swallows nestle under scarlet roses and peach-coloured
tulips - as the light glints off gilded chrysanthemums set among
shards of mirror. Under the dome, a bucket sits beneath an ominous,
swollen bloom of damp and on the floor nearby, a pile of plaster
rubble and broken mirror lies under a gaping hole in the roof.
The building which houses Tbilisi's State Academy of Arts was built as
the palace of the wealthy Armenian trader Arshakunian who commissioned
the architect Grigol Ivanov to construct the sprawling complex in
1850. Believing that he had partly Iranian blood, Arshakunian invited
Persian master craftsmen to decorate the interior in the contemporary
Qajar style, complete with several ornate mirror-halls and extensive
use of painted concave plaster-work.
"The building is one of only three extant Qajar interiors in Georgia,"
says Gogi Gegechkori, a former student at the academy and advisor to
Culture Minister Guram Odisharia, "the others being the small Firuza
Palace in Borjomi (recently restored) and the former Iranian Embassy
(now a private house) on Chonkadze Street. But the Academy of Arts
is by far the most extensive and exquisite example of this style."
In 1922, the building passed into the possession of the state, and
became the headquarters of the State Academy of Arts, one of only
three such institutions in the early Soviet Union (the other two
being in Riga and Leningrad).
According to Gegechkori, the Academy of Arts has faced destruction
before. When Nikita Khrushchev learnt that none of the three Soviet
Academies of Art were located in Moscow, he ordered the immediate
levelling of all three existing academies and the construction of an
academy in the Soviet capital.
A story has since circulated at the Academy, that the then-rector
Apolon Kutateladze - after whom the Academy is now named - undertook
a three-hour, closed-door alcoholic-fueled meeting with the Soviet
Leader. When the doors of the meeting room swung open, Kutateladze
was seen embracing the slightly tipsy Soviet Leader, who decreed
not only that the Academy in Tbilisi should be spared destruction,
but that it should be enlarged and expanded.
Now, according to the rector Tina Kldiashvili, this unique
architectural treasure is under threat from the more mundane problems
of damp and structural damage. The building was constructed without
laying deep foundations, which has left it vulnerable to earthquakes
and other environmental damage. There is also a problem with rising
damp from the basement, and run-off from the haphazard and decrepit
roofing, which has led to water-damage in most rooms. As a result,
chunks of plaster regularly fall through, leaving the painted interiors
exposed to the elements.
In order to tackle the problem, the Academy has established a special
fund to raise money for a comprehensive rehabilitation of the building,
a goal which has so far remained elusive. Relying largely on the
personal contacts of the fashion designer and fund president Sopho
Chkonia, the fund is trying to raise the 8 million Lari ($5 million)
required to carry out the three-and-a-half year renovation project.
During its ten-year existence, the Academy's Chancellor Kakha Trapaidze
says, the fund has attracted "only promises."
For Gegechkori, one of the founders of the fund, the physical decline
of the Academy building is symbolic of the deterioration of artistic
education and the classical master-apprentice academy system on which
the Tbilisi Academy was founded. "The fund must be devoted to saving
this system of artistic education first," says Gegechkori, "and then we
can save the building. We don't want it to be just another monument."
Whether this ambitious project can be realized is under doubt. Last
November, the Ministry of Culture signed a memorandum of collaboration
with the fund which says that in principle, the state should support
rehabilitation works. Currently, of the Ministry's total annual budget
of 80 million Lari, around 6-7 million is spent on the upkeep of 10
000 registered national monuments.
Still, Gegechkori is optimistic that after local elections in Tbilisi
in June, the City Assembly and City Hall will be able to better
coordinate efforts to raise funds for the restoration of the Academy.
Both the Ministry of Finance and the American Embassy have committed
to provide funding, and Chkonia is planning an exhibition in France
in July, which will bring the Academy's unique heritage to an
international audience. Meanwhile, holding a large chunk of original
Qajar plasterwork in her hands, Nino says she only hopes the Academy's
treasures can be saved in time.
By Joseph Alexander Smith
9.05.2014
http://www.georgiatoday.ge/article_details.php?id=12216