Portal:Georgia (country)/Selected biography/1

Niko Pirosmanashvili (known internationally as Niko Pirosmani; ნიკო ფიროსმანაშვილი); b. May 5, 1862 - d. 1918) was a Georgian primitivist painter.

Pirosmani was born to a peasant family in the village of Mirzaani of the Kakheti province, then Russian Empire. His family owned a small vineyard. He was orphaned as a kid and put in the care of his two elder sisters. In search of a better life he moved with them to Tbilisi in 1870. In Tbilisi he was employed by a wealthy family as a servant, where he learned to read and write Russian and Georgian. In 1876 he returned to Mirzaani and worked as a herdsman for a few years.

Pirosmani gradually taught himself to paint. One of his specialties was painting directly onto black oilcloth. In 1882 he opened a workshop in Tbilisi which was unsuccessful. In 1890 he worked as a railroad conductor, and in 1895 started drawing signboards. In 1893 he co-founded a dairy farm in Tbilisi which he left in 1901. Throughout his life, Pirosmani, who was always poor, was willing to take up random odd jobs, which often included housepainting and whitewashing buildings. Despite local popularity of his paintings, of which about 200 survive to date, his relationship with professional artists had remained uneasy; therefore, making a living had been always more important to him than abstract aesthetics. In April 1918 he died of malnutrition and liver failure. He was buried at the St. Nino cemetery; the exact location is unknown as it was not registered.

More...