(b Tiflis [now Tbilisi], 30 March 1896; d Tbilisi, 20 July 1980). Georgian painter, draughtsman, illustrator and stage designer. From 1910 to 1914 he trained at the Tiflis School of Painting and Sculpture and from 1919 to 1926 at the Acad?mie Ronson in Paris. While in Paris he became closely acquainted with Modigliani, Ignacio Zuloaga, Natal'ya Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov. His early works, with their theatrically romantic depictions of Georgian national life, fantastic and Symbolist motifs and surreal effects of colour, combine elements of the grotesque with a charming poetic mystery (e.g. the 'Tsotskhali' Fish, 1920; Tbilisi, Mus. A. Georg.). His affinity with ancient Georgian and Persian art, of which he was a connoisseur, intensified on his return to Georgia in 1926; his colours became shimmering and tinged with gold, and, at the same time, the visual link with theatre became even stronger (many of his paintings have opera or ballet performances as their subjects or portray actresses in costume). He frequently depicted fantastic and mythological subjects (e.g. Serafita's Outing, 1940; Tbilisi, Mus. A. Georgia). Usually the central figure is a gracefully majestic and beautiful Georgian woman representing a mysterious earth goddess. His vast anti-totalitarian series of ink drawings (1942; e.g. Tbilisi, Mus. A. Georgia) recall the images in Goya's work: the chimerical visions that he evoked embody in equal measure Nazism and the tragedy of Georgian history during the years of Stalin's rule. Gudiashvili also painted frescoes, including one (1946) for the Kashveti Church in Tbilisi, a choice of commission for which he was expelled from the Communist Party and dismissed from the Tbilisi Academy of Arts, where he had taught. He illustrated many books, among them Sulkan Saba Orbeliani's Mudrost' lzhi ('The wisdom of falsehood'; 1939), and worked as a set designer for the theatre.
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