Women Have Held Important Roles In History, Only It Is Rarely Mentioned

My eyes, having seen all,
Came back to
The white chrysanthemums.

Issho (1653–1688)

“They walk in shadow, yet toward the sun,” says Tina Tskhadadze, also known as Tina Svann, as she gazes at her Georgian Darks, or “The Guardians,” as she calls them.

The story of her artistic exploration traces back to childhood. Tina says she was holding a paintbrush by the time she was one year old.

“I remember my grandfather, who was a historian, sitting next to me, picking up different editions of Vepkhistkaosani illustrated by Sergo Kobuladze, Irakli Toidze, and Mihály Zichy, and reading them to me. I was his first granddaughter, and he let me scribble in the books. As a child, I desperately wanted to become part of the story.”

Years later, Tina discovered Shota Rustaveli. At the age of nine, she became deeply drawn to the work of Lado Gudiashvili.

“As a young person, I couldn’t understand why I loved his paintings so much. His aesthetics have stayed with me to this day. I return to his work again and again.”

✱ Lado Gudiashvili was a 20th-century Georgian monumentalist and a member of the Board of the Association of Georgian Painters. He is known for his anti-Nazi cycle of ink drawings and is often referred to as the “Georgian Goya.”

After Gudiashvili, Tina became fascinated by Honoré Daumier. She tried to understand whether it was his techniques or the mood of his work that influenced her most.

“I was drawn to Daumier’s stylistics, his darkness, his silhouettes. I now realize that my engagement with dark and bright contrasts traces back to him.”

Khita Kutateladze’s work later entered her life with force and suddenness. For Tina, Khita was an artist who fully revealed his potential. He shaped her way of seeing and thinking and gave her a framework that allowed her to take risks freely.

Introduction to Georgian Dark

After Khita, Tina was captivated by Shalva Kikodze and Petre Otskheli. By that time, she had already begun working on what would become Georgian Darks, though the concept had not yet fully formed.

✱ Shalva Kikodze was a Georgian expressionist painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of his works are housed at the Art Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi.

“Otskheli sorted me out,” Tina says. “That’s when the Georgian Dark series truly began. I could finally see the direction my work was taking. In a way, it’s a symbiosis of everything these artists planted in my imagination.”

She believes painting, much like film directing, requires experience and maturity.

“Sometimes it feels like you’re living in two worlds at once,” she says, gently stroking her cat, Richi. The name, she explains, is temporary. “A cat will decide its own name when it grows up. For now, he’s Richard the Lionheart.”

✱ Guram (Khita) Kutateladze was a 20th-century Georgian artist known for his distinct approach to landscape and space. He was a recipient of the Rustaveli Prize.

✱ Petre Otskheli was a Georgian modern set and costume designer and an avant-garde artist of the 20th century, best known for his sketch Winged Painter (1936).

First Georgian Dark

Reflecting on her path as a painter, Tina speaks about the difficulty of reaching self-expression.

“I struggled to reach the core of the Georgian Dark series. I was going through a difficult period, constantly dialoguing with myself. I had to let go of painting myself. Once I did, abstract sensations and emotions began to flow.”

Georgian Darks have black eyes. Tina deliberately avoided eye movement so viewers wouldn’t focus on gaze. What remains is eternity. A quiet melancholy, the melancholy of contained energy.

Georgian Darks are women moving forward, steadily overcoming resistance. They walk in shadow, yet toward the sun. They are Bright Darks. Over time, these women became archetypes, guardians protecting everything around them.

“In earlier works, I used two characters: the protector and the protected. Now my work revolves around a single figure, the guardian. Some are slightly masculine, some wear chokha, some play backgammon, others water gardens with long pipes. I’m not pursuing a fixed idea. The inspiration came unexpectedly.”

The Deer Paintings

“While painting these works, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was painting someone familiar. Near the end, I realized it was my grandfather, embodied as a deer. Nobility and guidance are qualities of deer, and they remind me of him.”

According to Tina, her paintings are stylistically modern, perhaps modern art deco. Elements like headbands, chikhti, and war gear are vintage, but she insists on making them relevant today.

“As for red, I was ready to move away from black and planned to do it through blue, following Goethe’s Theory of Colors. But blue pulled me back into black, into eternity, into the cosmos.”

So she moved to the opposite end of the spectrum. The pandemic may have played a role.

“That period was filled with red for me. I needed to find the exact red I was searching for. The one I arrived at is the color of blood.”

Tina paints on parchment. Its ivory tone complements the work, and its softness felt right to her. Regular paper felt too rough. Parchment, she says, carries vulnerability and dignity, much like the women she paints.

While painting, Tina feels genderless. As a student, she was once told she had “men’s hands.” It was meant as praise, but it irritated her deeply.

“I’m not concerned with what it means to be a woman or a man while I’m painting.”

In early works, Georgian Darks appear in traditionally male roles. Tina’s protest is subtle, hidden in detail. She challenges viewers to see beyond beauty and form.

One of the most memorable exhibitions Tina participated in was the Drawing Exposition at Film-Fabrika, featuring around 40 artists. The works were suspended on ropes.

“It completely bewitched me. The format, the content, everything felt new.”

At the end of our conversation, we spoke about Tbilisi.

“I love Tbilisi as much as I hate it,” she says. “The city irritates me and calms me at the same time. I fight with her while holding her in my arms. Kartlis Deda, as an archetype, runs through my work. Women have carried Georgia through history, even if that role wasn’t always acknowledged. It’s a concept I constantly return to.”

Tina Tskhadadze is an associate professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. Her works appear in various catalogs and are held in private collections in Tbilisi, London, Budapest, Moscow, Riga, and beyond.