ST/A/R-50-54 (Seiteneindrücke)

18 ST/A/R/T +
Nr. 50/2016
Nr. 50/2016
+ ST/A/R/T 19
Contributions: Max Henry
Tamuna Sirbiladze -kill all your darlings
In one form or another every painter's output is autobiographical. A
necessary combination of physical stamina and mental acuity marks
the progression of time. Embedded within the material results are the
emotive rhythms of one's daily cycle. Expressed with coo l ana lytic detachment
or marked by a sorrow that turns into rage these actions are
a progression of weeks, months, and years accrued into an oeuvre. We
get to know someone through his or her art or rather that unspoken
otherness that's unique to each individual temperament.
Tamuna Sirbiladze kept up a rigorous studio schedu le, the paintings
accwnulated--she usually had severa l !arge, medium, and sma ll
formats going at once wit hout missing a beat. Everything came in
bunches; her colors found their own logic, patterns developed. You
cou ldn't categorize Tamuna as singu larly abstract though. Her interlocking
shapes often embedded anthropomorp hic forms (eyes, bod.ies,
heads) or incorporated still life objects (such as pomegranates) that are
totally her own. The 2015 exhibition "Good Enough, Is Never Good
Enough" was her coming out sho w at James Fuentes, New York. Some
of the oil stick and pastel paintings were large-sca le banners flat on the
wall, others on the requisite stretcher. This choice selection of pictures
was weil ed.ited and announced a seasoned artist. Unafraid of the gestura
l and quirky this was Tamuna at her ebullient best.
How to overcome the limitations of the stretcher is a considerab le issue
facing the contemporary painter. This never daunted Tamuna, who
painted with an insouciant attitude towards rigid formalism. She leaned
groups of paintings on the wa ll th at you could parse through like
posters in a rack. Her site-specific interventions d.ispensed with conventiona
l painting installations, either directly on wa lls overlaid with
standard raw canvas works or in cube structures adorned with staccato
mark making. In a 2012 solo, she took command of the space in "this is
not a gallery" by installing floor to ceiling canvases among the rooms.
A coup le of canvases totally covered the big windows although still
allowing natural light to seep through.
Such an unexpected encounter with a painting installation emphasized
Taumuna's idiosyncratic approach to exhibition making. Over and
again she sought to defy the bourgeois conventions of painting d.isplay.
Hen ce the "cube" paintings hint at a dilemma about the consumerist
white cube by offering us a box within the standardized box, set upon
the floor rather than a sterile wa ll.
Tamuna was often full of surprises, some of which I couldn't reconcile
as she experimented with numerous forms. Many were delightful
oddities that seemed to me one offs that she couldn't help but produce,
perhaps to alleviate the intensity of finishing a new series with deadlines
for shows fast approaching. Among my personal favorites is the
enigmatic "White Co lumn s': 2011 a sizable (2 x 3 meter) horiz onta l
picture. Two vertica l columns of said title appear like stacked asymmetrical
vessels about to topple. Set amidst neutral gray, off whit e, and
pastel shades of pink and yellow, the background's rough patchwork of
tonal variation emits the stillne ss found in a Giorgio Morandi still life.
Here she captured the noble silent life of a room space set in time that
is neither of the past nor of the future. An artist who hits their stride
in the studio is by will creating a ripple in time. It's evident when the
work gets exhibited, and gives credence to the hypothesis abo ut the
aura of the art object. Abstract gestures gave Tamuna improvisatory
expression while elements of representation and the figure gave her
grounding. From her early formative days in Tbilisi, dassical underpinnings
and the Byzantine, remain "hidden" in her work. Frequent visits
to the permanent collection ofVienna's Kunsthistorische Museum,
and when traveling, the Met Museum, NY, the Louvre in Paris, or the
Museo di Capodimonte in Naples inspired a figurative series titled ''V
Co llection''. Details of these canonic paintings were appropriated from
book reproductions, phone snaps hots, and sense memory. For her
2013 exhibition, a salon hang of severa l sma ll to mid-sized canvases
adorned the wa lls. Caravaggio, Giotto, Raphael, Velazquez; the titans
of the canon were her muse and accomp lice in cropped paintings that
retain a corresponding resonance wit h th e original. Raphael's "Portrait
ofCardina l Alessandro Farnese" has an especia lly compe lling presence
with its hold shadowy red garment, skullcap, and ground . This is a man
who ascended to the papal throne during tumultuous times after the
fall ofRome in 1527. He looks askance as ifhe's about to reprimand a
subordinate . The eyes project the intrigue ofthe persona in this d.istillation
that destroys Raphael's portrait of the cardina l whilst remaining
true to its essence of power and intrigue.
"In writing, you must kill all your darlings", said the American author
and Nobel laureate William Faulkner. This quote most certain ly applies
to the painter's trade that encompasses Tamuna's very productive last
few years. A close-up of Caravaggids cardsharp picture makes for a
good examp le in assessing the creator-destroyer myth of all painters.
The chiaroscuro of the baroque master is employed but conjured out
of more rudimentary details. The moral of the enduring story is alte red
from one of urban deception to a metaphor on the fate of the cardho l­
der. The naivete of the sitter becomes a folkloric tale on purity throu gh
color, line, and forms in space .
In life and art Tamuna Sirbiladze played her cards weil. She "killed" all
her darlings in direct pursuit of that cognitive moment between chance
and fate. She was a force of personality, fierce and stoic to the end.
With th ese thoughts on my mind, l'11 conclude with the wise words of
Cacamatzin:
Who in the end is spared from leaving, despite his gold and all his jade
Is everyone not bound to go there
Am I a shie ld of turquoise, a stone set in mosaic
Will I ever wa lk this earth again
W ill they shroud me in fine mantels
Contributions:
Lia Gulua
Contributions: Natia Kalandaze
Little Sour Fruits
Contributions: Julie Ryan
The locations were scattered across Vienna, mostly in public
space along the Prater and Augarten parks. Others were on
private property. I did most of the tree climbing while Tamuna
scouted for the next place to pillage , both in search of
little sour fruits.
,,/ do not know what the name is in English" she explained ,
nor could she. There is no name for an unripe plum in English
or German, just words for unripe as in not ready to be
eaten or given a name yet.
Tamuna loved these fruits. There were always baskets of
nuts in shells at our apartment , or any place I ever saw her
at home in, with a pomegranate and the odd piece of hard
candy plucked from a hotel she had stayed at.
Photo: Julie Ryan
Pomegranates needed patience , and Tamuna would wait for
their skins to lose a little shine and become leathery to fully
appreciate their singular sourness. We would sit for hours,
as one can in a cafe culture driven city like Vienna, and pick
at fruits and drink chai and coffees and unravel.
Sweet friends bound by sour fruits and the kind of time that
binds people to places neither knew as first homes.
Tammrn in sn1dio with "Whi te Columns" Tamuna Sirbiladze "Whi te Column s" Oil Stick/Acry lic on Canvas, 200 x 300 cm (20 11)