Irakli Ochiauri, Georgian sculptor, Died at 91

  Artists

Irakli Ochiauri was born on November 20, 1924, and died on December 4, 2015.

He was a Georgian painter and sculptor, who was awarded the Shota Rustaveli State Prize, the highest prize in Georgia in the fields of art and literature.

Irakli Ochiauri was born in Tbilisi. From 1945 to 1951, Irakli studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts on the faculty of Sculpture, firsrt with professor Silovan Kakabadze and then with Iakob Nikoladze.

His dissertation was devoted to Vazha Pshavela.

Irakli participated in exhibitions since 1953.

His first work, the portrait of Marine Kubaneishvili attracted attention when it was exhibited in Moscow and, thanks to this, Irakli Ochiauri became a member of the Union of Soviet Artists.

In the same 1953, Irakli exhibited his first embossing – Portrait of Iakob Nikoladze that is considered as the renascence of the new Georgian Art of coining.

During ten years, from 1952 to 1962, Irakli had been working alone in restoration and foundation of new face of the field of repoussé.

At the same time Ochiauri did not forget about sculpture too.

Irakli was the author of the sculpture of pearl divers in Pitsunda, bronze monuments of Alexandre Kazbegi in Kazbegi and Vazha Pshavela in Dusheti.

In addition to coining and sculpture, he works in the fields of graphic arts and painting.

Irakli was a People’s Artist of Georgia and a Professor of the Georgian Polytechnic University.

He participated at the World Exhibitions in Montreal, Canada and Osaka, Japan and had personal exhibitions in Norway, Austria, West and East Germany, Syria, Belgium, Jordan, Japan.

Irakli Ochiauri passed away at age 91 in December 2015.