Madonna Siharulidze & Nugzar Ruhadze
The other day we straggled in an art gallery at 14, Chonkadze Street of downtown Tbilisi and were taken by surprise with what we had seen – the world of still life, collage and sculpture, put together masterfully in an amazing ensemble. We have been in tens of art museums around the world and have shuffled through hundreds of art albums, but have never experience the sensation triggered by what was hanging on the walls right in front of our eyes as if inviting to see through the details and the shades of colors which were both known and unknown at the same time. We immediately rushed to see the artist and asked him if he was under the influence of any kind of art or any artist whatsoever. The answer was adamantly singular – No! Indeed, Tengiz Marr, an architect and artist in his mid fifties has created the world which looks absolutely different from what could be seen in the realm of art in general.
The exhibition is called ‘Outlandish Fruit’ and the title is absolutely compatible with what the eye observes. The artist’s natural talent and technique, his ability to put together the soul and the body, his sense of reality and symbolism make him vulnerable and impregnable all at the same time. Exhibited is this impressive art at Gallery Vanda (the owner’s name) who herself is all into Marr’s artistic world, explaining his complicated imagery breathlessly and with love. Every piece here is a story, a novel, an epic which has a tendency to be continued into eternity. These pictures are thinkers and talkers and they don’t need to be represented – they do the job without being assisted. As a matter of fact, any human commentary will sound weird, any interpretation might distort the image and content, any reading might seem irrelevant if not done very carefully and thoughtfully. You just want to stay there and keep meditating, obfuscated with the power of expression and happily entering this extraordinary world of color, plastic and vibes and wishing to stay there for good. Exit makes you uncomfortable and disconcerted. The real world all of a sudden seems ridden with poverty and dullness, devoid of emotion and fantasy, and you want to hurry back into the bygone time of magic and mystical presence, in which the harmony of color and idea renders the artist’s creative world complete.
Tengiz Marr has this time exhibited his works of the latest ten years. And the price tags range between 500 to 3000 dollars, which is not even an issue – they might cost much more in another art market. You are looking at those pearls and you know that money does not matter here – you just want to have them on your house walls and are ready to pay forthwith as much as they are asking for. These looker-on-friendly images entice you with one wave of a wand, giving you a physical feeling of every single stroke of the artist’s brush who is modestly and wordlessly standing next to you as if trying to guess if you have read the same story in his works that had been put by him into his lovable pieces. Those pieces do not need to be titled – they speak for themselves and the tiles are voluntary, left to the discretion of an admirer and a buyer.
How amazing and resourceful that two or three disparate subjects create one logical whole in the hands of the artist to be presented to the mind of an observer for further philosophical reflection. This is the place where the human ideals are reflected and harnessed so masterfully that the potentially achievable acme of interpretation is handy and ready to perceive in the least erroneous way. All this creates a monolithic art structure made of warmth, tolerance, care, love, compassion and Good Samaritan decency. Just everything in one holistic bunch! Amazing!
By the way, Tengiz Marr is a direct descendent of the famous Georgian academic genius of linguistic science Niko Marr. This fact may not have anything to do with this wonderful exhibition, but Tengiz is very proud of his ancestry, and we can understand him. Tengiz is also a successful interior designer.
Looking at Tengiz Marr and his works simultaneously, one comes to believe that together they make one inseparable piece. They are uncannily compatible – the depth of character and benevolence in attitudes, brilliance of mind and brightness of color, modesty of presence and tenderness of shades, taciturnity of a person and laconism of artistic solution, sparkle in the eye and radiance of expression, desire to communicate and potential to govern our hearts and minds.
And trust us please that there is no exaggeration at all in any of those emotionally but responsibly written paragraphs. Some of us sometimes just deserve to be read correctly and fairly. Nothing else!
