Talk:Dimitri Tavadze

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People's Painter of Georgia, Laureate of the State Prize Dimitri Tavadze for more than 50 years has fruitfully worked in the sphere of theatre-painting and has made a valuable contribution to it. For years D. Tavadze has designed a lot of plays in our republic as well as in various theatres of the USSR. However, for the most part his work was connected with the Rustaveli State Drama Theatre of Tbilisi.

D. Tavadze was among the first graduates of the Tbilisi Academy of Arts. He graduated in 1930 but began his work at the Rustaveli Theatre while being a student. First, he worked in a design workshop then as an assistant to the director and from 1930 he became a designer.

The artistic formation of a young painter was greatly influenced by innovations that distinguished the Georgian theatre of the 1920s, namely the theatre-painting. They were realized in the theatre by an outstanding Georgian director – Sandro Akhmeteli.

The quests for the new forms of expression called for new solutions. The theatrical peculiarities which implied a conventional character of the scenery became the main problem in the sphere of theatre-painting. Collaboration with S. Akhmeteli was very important for a beginning painter, mainly from the viewpoint of the theatrical peculiarities and the understanding of the conventional features of the theatre.

D. Tavadze's works of the 1930s are decided in the form of space-volume constructions built on a moving stage space that defines quick changing of the scene.

The first performance designed by D. Tavadze on the stage of the Rustaveli Theatre was the play "The Hoop" (1932-33 season, directed by S. Akhmeteli and Sh. Aghsabadze). The permanent element of the scenery was a moving decorative device of a complicated configuration. Its curved contour and acting sites paced on different heights conventionally implied the mountainous surfaces of the West Georgia. The general conventional character of the scenery was combined with the real forms of a separate characteristic motif: the front part of a cottage in Imereti, a suspension bridge, a maize barn. Generally, a West Georgian village with its characteristic features was extremely popular in the works of that period (S. Kldiashvili "The Autumn Gentry" after D. Kldiashvili's works, 1936, directed by K. Pataridze).

In his works of 1930s D. Tavadze appeared as a designer with his own individual style. We can see that here pictorial tendencies became stronger and they are rich in the illusionary display of space on the stage. Such approach was connected with the general direction in the development of stage-design of the 1930s. The main importance in the artistic design of the performance was attached to the representation of the outside world on the stage in real forms.

Such artistic approach was firmly established in the theatre from the 1940s, and went on in the 1950s as well.

The problem of space was solved with the illusionary views expressed by pictorial means together with real forms of the attributes of action. The use of pictorial and built scenery lay in the basis of D. Tavadze's works of that time: S. Kldiashvili, "The Generation of the Heroes" (1936-37 season, directed by K. Pataridze); I. Mosashvili, "The Sunk Stones" (1949, directed by Ak. Vasadze). In his scenery and costumes the painter expressed convincingly the whole store of attributes and properties characteristic to that epoch and environment. A perfect knowledge of the stage peculiarities and technical possibilities helped D. Tavadze to subject the exact display of acting place and environment to the impression of general theatricality: G. Mdivani, "Alkazar" (1937, directed by D. Aleksidze); C. Goldoni, "Servant of Two Masters" (1946, directed by D. Aleksidze).

Considering the generic peculiarities of the performance is very characteristic of D. Tavadze. Satirical aspect of the plays are accentuated in the scenery and costumes for I. Vakeli's "A Busy Man" (1956, directed by M. Tumanishvili) and P. Kakabadze's "Kvarkvare Tutaberi" (1959, directed by D. Aleksidze). But as for the heroic-romantic productions, here the painter solves the scenery in monumental forms. In the viewpoint of effective vision, architecture shown in bold foreshortening creates a corresponding environment for the plays: A. Pushkin, "Boris Godunov" (1957, directed by D. Aleksidze); L. Kiacheli "Tariel Golua" (1955, directed by M. Tumanishvili); Al. Apkhaidze "The Aragvians" (1958, directed by A. Chkhartishvili); etc.

From the middle of the 1950s we can notice a vivid change in stage design. Deep and close understanding of the theatrical peculiarities and, hence the use of conventional solutions became essentially necessary in directing, of course, according to the features of the theatre.

The epoch-making production designed by D. Tavadze is J. Fletcher, "The Spanish Curate" (1954, directed by M. Tumanishvili), in which the solution of the director and designer's work blended into a single theatrical performance. On the stage we can see a whole compact space-volume construction. It is erected on the moving circle. This construction implies a lot of acting sites and gives a wide space for the actors to play. The designer didn't intend to depict the epoch exactly in his scenery. The buildings erected on the stage in general forms display a provincial Spanish town with its characteristic features. Light buildings, a smaller scale underline conventional atmosphere of the performance and present suitable environment for comedy.

Laconic and in some way strict scenery in the drama P. Kohout's "Such Love" (1959, directed by M. Tumanishvili) widens the psychological acuteness of the play.

The director and the designer used cinema projection in this play and in "The Sea Children" by G. Khukhashvili (1961); in the backstage we can see on the screens quickly changing separate views and pictures – sequences. These performances in which cinema means were used to express the dynamic rhythm of modern life are worth mentioning as an experiment of the synthesis between theatre and cinema arts. This experiment was one among those tendencies which were characteristic of the theatre of our epoch.

Shakespearean drama holds an important place in D. Tavadze's works. In the 1960-70s he made sketches for Shakespeare tragedies: "Macbeth" (1963), "Othello" (Two versions; one of them was directed in the Kirovabad State Theatre by I. Bagirov), "Romeo and Juliet", "King Lear", "Hamlet" (the 1970s), "Richard III" (1979-80 season, the Kirovabad State Theatre, directed by I. Bagirov). Laconic language of expression determines general monumental character of the design that is underlined by color solution based on the contrast of vast planes in three main colors.

The works of the last decade organically continue the line of development which was outlined distinctly in the 1950-60s. Stage design of the productions is based on the conventional placing of action, but, at the same time, we feel real background in the scenery. The reserved use of the properties and attributes help to underline the idea and character of the play.

D. Tavadze as a designer is characterized by the deep knowledge of stage peculiarities, professional use of theatre-decorative means; he can subject artistic design to the genre of the production – be it a classical tragedy, a psychological drama, a tale, a comedy, etc.

D. Tavadze's creative work is closely connected with the development and achievements of the Georgian scenography— Natela Aladashvili, '"Dimitri Tavadze"' Leschnei (talk) 15:20, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Natela Aladashvili. Monograph: "Dimitri Tavadze". Georgian theatrical Society; 1986