54
Shaliko
Art > Eka Kiknadze
It is sad when a person's birth and death are only 27 years apart, especially when these are the short lifetime
of one of modern Georgia’s most significant artists that brought new life to modern Georgian painting, Shalva
Kikodze. The young artist's all-encompassing interest in everyday life expressed itself in many areas: law,
painting, drawing, caricature, cartoons, theatre and stage decoration, book illustration and critique.
I
n 1914, Shalva Kikodze was admit-
ted to the Faculty of Law of Moscow
University. From 1916 he spent two
years studying painting in the classes
of the Moscow Higher School of Pain-
ting, Sculpture and Architecture. When
he came home to Tbilisi for holidays in
1916, he began working at the Georgian
Artists' Society and later became the
organization's Secretary. He participated
in the efforts led by Dimitri Shevardna-
dze to hand over to the public the buil-
ding of the Temple of Glory, where the
art gallery was established. In 1917-1918
he cooperated with the Russian maga-
zine „Рампа и жизнь“ (Footlights and
Life) where he published his sketches
and caricatures under the pseudonym of
Shaliko. In 1918 he also joined the first
artistic-scientific expedition organized
by the Georgian Artists' Society and the
Georgian Historical and Ethnographic
Society to make copies of the Nabakhte-
vi Church paintings. This artist had such
a variety of interests that developed in so
many directions in such a short time that
one cannot help being amazed. All of his
work took place during a tragically short
period, a mere nine years.
Shalva Kikodze was born in the villa-
ge of Bakhvi, Guria (west Georgia) on
27 May, 1894. He had a strong emotio-
nal connection to his birthplace and his
country in general. The artist once went
to Europe on a scholarship from the Ge-
orgian Artists’ Society, and wrote from
Shalva Kikodze, Self-Portrait, 1920
Georgian National Museum
France: "You cannot imagine, my dear
Granny, how precious every corner of
Bakhvi is for me. Life here does not allow
me to think about it often, but when I do,
I am ready to exchange all of Europe with
its machines and my studies, for my little
Bakhvi – the yard, the gate, the barn…"
He went to France with other Georgian
artists after participating in the 1920
Exhibition in the Temple of Glory (curren-
tly the National Gallery is located in this
building). The artists of this generation,
unlike the previous one, had turned their
backs on Russia as they felt they had
more in common with European culture.
For the Georgian artistic and academic
society of the 1910s, their national iden-
tity was associated with being European
and the development of new art forms
were being expressed in Georgia as they
became global.
In his works created in Paris, Georgian
themes that had prevailed before (such
as ‘Gurian Woman with a Jug, "Ajarian
Women in Chadors" and Gurian lands-
capes) were replaced by Parisian places,
the Luxembourg Garden, the appeal of
women dressed in fashionable hats and
clothes of the 1920s and visitors in Bohe-
mian cafés. His skills and style improved,
as did the colors and forms, which beca-
me richer, more expressive and dynamic.
Symbolism made its way into his art and
the expressionism that had been pre-
sent before gained strength. However,
at the same time a certain feeling of es-
trangement and sadness appeared, and
a premonition of something tragic beca-
me apparent in his work, and his artistic
explorations seemed to join the explora-
tions of the emotionally lost.
In 1921, the works of Kikodze and
other Georgian artists were presented in
Paris at the Salon des Indépendents and
Galerie La Licorne. On 4 September 1921,
the artist wrote his last letter to his sister
Aneta Kikodze: "I, my dear sister, got tired
of Paris and came to Germany to have a
little rest and to see Germany". However,
the trip to Germany was not caused sole-
ly by a desire to rest. By that time, Shalva
Kikodze discovered he had an incurable
disease, tuberculosis, and needed ur-
gent treatment. "I do not wish anyone to
know of my current state. So, you have
to keep this a complete secret and never
mention what I wrote you anywhere or
to anyone. What would be the point? I
left with two lungs and will be back with
one, what concern is it of anyone's how
many lungs I have under my vest?" he
wrote to David Kakabadze. However,
Shalva Kikodze never returned. He died
in Freiburg, Germany, in November 1921.
His legacy in painting and graphic art
remains a treasure of modern Georgian
art. It clearly demonstrates an exceptio-
nally interesting process of integration
of the Georgian visual arts of the 1910s
and 1920s into European modernism, a
movement in which Shalva Kikodze was
an inseparable part.
 Shalva Kikodze, "City". Oil on cardboard, 1919. Private collection

56 GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM Shalva Kikodze, Portrait of Aneta and Gerasime Kikodze. Oil on
cardboard, 1919. Private collection
Shalva Kikodze, "Istanbul". Oil on
canvas, 1920. Private collection
 Shalva Kikodze, Portrait of K. Makharadze. Oil on canvas, 1919. GNM - Museum of Fine Arts

Shalva Kikodze, Portrait of artist's sister Aneta Kikodze.

60 GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM Oil on canvas, 1919. Private collection