Lado Gudiashvili

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Lado Gudiashvili (Georgian: ლადო გუდიაშვილი) was a Georgian painter who lived from 1896 to 1980. He was born in Tiflis (now Tbilisi) to a railway worker and died in Tbilisi.

Gudiashvili studied at the Tbilisi School of Sculpture and Fine Art (1910–1914) and later attended Ronson’s private academy in Paris (1919–1926). In Paris he was part of the La Ruche artists’ colony and met artists like Ignacio Zuloaga, Amedeo Modigliani, Natalia Goncharova, and Mikhail Larionov. He also belonged for a time to a Georgian group of poets called The Blue Horns (1914–1918).

His work was strongly influenced by Niko Pirosmani. The early paintings mix dramatic grotesque with poetic mystery, such as Live Fish (1920). When he returned to Georgia in 1926, his colors became warmer and his art took on a more theatrical feel, often inspired by operas and costumes for actresses. He also used mythological imagery, as in The Walk of Seraphita (1940), with a beautiful goddess-like figure representing the Earth.

Gudiashvili worked as a monumental painter and created new art for the Kashveti Church in Tbilisi in 1946. That project led to his expulsion from the Communist Party and dismissal from the Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts, where he had taught since 1926. He produced a large antifascist series of Indian ink drawings, sometimes called a “Georgian Goya,” depicting monsters and ruined culture. He also worked as a book illustrator and theater designer.

Lado Gudiashvili was honored with high Soviet titles, including People's Artist of the USSR (1972) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1976).