FOREWORD Katrine Levin, founder Katrine Levin Galleries
The art of Mamuka “Dideba” Didebashvili, who is dubbed “Georgia’s Bruegel”, is a unique expression of the wonder, subtle humour, and the often surreal and warm philosophical outlook that is quintessential of the small but wondrous country of Georgia. A rare master of the figurative and the abstract, Dideba paints in exquisite Renaissance imprimatura technique that lights up the canvas from within. This process requires enormous skill and patience and is the same technique used by Leonardo da Vinci. Inspired by the Old Masters, Dideba creates nuanced characters who seem to walk off the canvas while remaining fixed in their own world, at an indeterminate time and place. Dideba completes a painting only when he senses the figure is alive, as if about to start a conversation. You can almost sense the touch of wine on the Sommelier’s lips or feel the wrinkles on the Gladiator’s face. Altering the figure away from classical proportions, he highlights the essential character. Yet all of his characters have one irresistible thing in common: no matter whether serious, playful or surreal, from the Sommelier to the Gladiator to the Soap Bubble Seller, his characters are kind. Their unconventional forms convey their essence with gentle humour and dignity.
My chief goal is to transform the mundane and the realistic into something special and elevated. Dideba alternates between figurative and abstracted works, each of which taps into a different part of him. Of his abstracted paintings, he says that they are a practice in “absolute freedom”. There, he creates an enchanting melody of colour that lures us inside a richly contemplative world. Dideba lives and works in Georgia, an ancient land of inspiration and artistic mastery. Born in 1968 in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, Dideba studied at the prestigious Nikoladze School of Art and the Tbilisi State Art Academy. Widely exhibited internationally, Dideba’s first solo exhibition in London was with Katrine Levin Galleries at Shapero Modern in Mayfair, in 2019.
8
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker