“The Tiger”, Oil on canvas, Signed, 1988.

200 x 450 cm.

PROVENANCE Art Foundation Anagi Collection, Tbilisi

Note:

This monumental 1988 work, The Tiger, ranks among Mamuka Tsetskhladze’s most ambitious and significant compositions, created on the eve of profound political and cultural transformation in the late Soviet period. Executed in Tbilisi at the workshop of the Kote Marjanishvili State Academic Drama Theatre, within the influential artistic circle known as the “Marjanishvilebi”, the painting emerges from a moment of heightened artistic and national consciousness in Georgia.

Distinguished by its exceptional scale and dynamic composition, the work embodies a central motif in Tsetskhladze’s practice: the idea of journey as a metaphor for transition. The tiger assumes a powerful symbolic presence, an embodiment of movement, resilience, and latent force, capturing the psychological intensity of a society on the brink of profound change.

Notably, in the year of its creation, the painting left the Soviet Union and was exhibited in Paris at UNESCO, marking a rare instance of international exposure for Georgian artists of this generation. Subsequently held for several decades in the private collection of a German collector and gallerist, The Tiger remained largely unseen before its recent return to Georgia.

Combining rarity, scale, and a significant exhibition history, The Tiger stands as a key work within Tsetskhladze’s oeuvre, representative of a defining moment of cultural awakening at the end of the Soviet era