Nikoladze, Iakov Ivanovich

Nikoladze, Iakov Ivanovich 

Born May 16 (28), 1876, in Kutaisi; died Mar. 10, 1951, in Tbilisi. Soviet sculptor; founder of modern Georgian sculpture. People’s Artist of the Georgian SSR (1946). Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947). Member of the CPSU from 1939.

Nikoladze attended the Stroganov School in Moscow from 1892 to 1894 and the Odessa School of Drawing in 1894 and 1895, and again in 1897 and 1898. From 1899 to 1901 and again from 1904 to 1910, he studied in Paris, where he worked under A. Rodin for more than a year. He was one of the founders (1922) and first professors of the Tbilisi Academy of Arts. In his portraits, Nikoladze sought to capture the essence and ideals of his subject (Chakhrukhadze, plaster of paris, 1944, Museum of Art of the Eastern Peoples, Moscow, State Prize of the USSR, 1946; Lenin at the Time That “Iskra” Was Being Launched, bronze, 1947, Tret’iakov Gallery, Moscow, State Prize of the USSR, 1948). He also created memorials (gravestone of I. Chavchavadze at the Pantheon on Mount Mtatsminda in Tbilisi, bronze and marble, 1908–10, unveiled in 1913). Nikoladze was awarded two orders and various medals.

REFERENCE

Urushadze, I. A. la. Nikoladze. Moscow, 1968.