Our Ambassadors » David Gigauri

 

“In these terrific Georgians we had met more than our match. They could out-eat us, out-drink us, out-dance us, out-sing us”. - Nobel-prize winning author John Steinbeck

Georgia, albeit being a small nation, was able to leave a highly distinct trace in the world of arts. Throughout its ancient history, and in all art fields, Georgians have offered something novel – whether its the traditional art forms, like the Georgian highly complex polyphonic songs, which have been recognised as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, or the new art forms, like film, which in the words of the great Federico Fellini “Georgian film is a completely unique phenomenon, vivid, philosophically inspiring, very wise, childlike. There is everything that can make me cry and I ought to say that it (my crying) is not an easy thing.”

In a similar fashion, the Georgian fine arts were always able to bring innovation, originality and variety, from the intricate works of the famed medieval Georgian Cloisonne Enamel masters, to the posthumously celebrated primitivist painter of the 20th century Pirosmani.

This trend continues today and the cARTveli Art Foundation is the ideal platform to channel the contemporary Georgian arts to the rest of the world. In the current times of modernisation and amalgamation of cultures, cARTveli Art Foundation presents the distinctive, Georgia specific, examples of art and experience on the international arena.

David Gigauri
Partner, Gryphon Emerging Markets &
Vice-Chairman, British-Georgian Society