Medieval Art in Georgia through the Soviet Lens: from Colonialist Marginalization to Nationalist Acclamation

FILIPOVÁ, Alžběta. Medieval Art in Georgia through the Soviet Lens: from Colonialist Marginalization to Nationalist Acclamation. In Research Seminar Series: “Shifting Images and Ideas of Europe’s East: An Art Historical Approach from the Margins”, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institut for Kunstgeschichte. 2023.

Basic information

• Original name: Medieval Art in Georgia through the Soviet Lens: from Colonialist Marginalization to Nationalist Acclamation
• Authors: FILIPOVÁ, Alžběta.
• Edition: Research Seminar Series: “Shifting Images and Ideas of Europe’s East: An Art Historical Approach from the Margins”, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institut for Kunstgeschichte, 2023.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Requested lectures
• Field of Study: 60401 Arts, Art history
• Country of publisher: Italy
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: Medieval Georgia; Historiography of Art History; South Caucasus; Giorgi Chubinashvili; Great Soviet Encyclopedia
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

Arising from a cultural crossroads between Europe and Asia and characteristic by profound cultural syncretism, the art and architecture of medieval Georgia has been put on the side-lines of the Eurocentric art historical canon. The marginalization is due in large part to historiographic factors stemming from the past two hundred years of Russian domination of South Caucasus. This lecture investigates the progressive historiographic construction of two main (and sometimes contradictory) perspectives that have shaped the limited understanding that art historians worldwide have of Georgian medieval art. Firstly, we will briefly expose the dominant Russian narrative making the art of South Caucasus the product of a geographically and culturally peripheral zone of assimilation and imitation of Byzantium. This evidently reflected the marginal political position of Georgia within the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Secondly, we will focus on the establishment of art history as scientific discipline in the 1920’s in Georgia, on its methodological and ideological frameworks, as well as on its fundamental role in the process of formation of ethnic and national identity.

Links

• 101026166, interní kód MU: Name: Demarginalizing Medieval Georgia: History of Art History between Colonial Perspective and Nationalist Appropriation (1921–1991)

Investor: European Union, MSCA Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (Excellent Science)