Sketching on location

During these yearly workshops, Ivan Kugach, Jonathan Wurdeman and Ilya Yatsenko have produced a large and diverse body of work. Together it provides a deep and sensitive portrait of the Georgian landscape and culture. The work ranges from panoramic views of the snow-covered caucuses to scenes of the vineyards at harvest time to religious sites and ceremonies, portraits and still lives of ornately arranged Georgian pottery, carpets and native fruits.

“In the Vineyard,” by Ilya Yatsenko, 2010, oil

The artists' creative output from these few months each year is incredible. Not long ago, before the fall of the Soviet Union, such artists' retreats were much more common. The USSR's union of artists operated four "academic dachas" — campuses in the countryside where students, faculty and independent artists would come together, usually in the summer, to paint. Today, because of the breakup of the Soviet republics, only one of these dachas remains in operation and it is no longer the hive of activity and creative energy it once was. I spent a summer there myself painting and conducting an oral history project with Russian artists. Each artist I interviewed gave me the same account of neglect and growing financial strain.

“Bodbe Monastery,” by Ilya Yatsenko, 2011, oil

While the state system no longer supports Russian Realism as it once did, determined young artists like Wurdeman, Kugach and Yatsenko are taking matters into their own hands. They have created their own artists’ retreat and the results are simply beautiful. The opening at the Georgian National Museum had a fantastic turnout. The show was attended by many important business and political figures from inside and outside the country including the regional mayor, the US ambassador to Georgia, the Latvian ambassador, the wife of the Danish ambassador, the head of the World Bank for the Caucus region and many of the most powerful members of Georgia's wine industry. If through their continued efforts Wurdeman, Yatsenko and Kugach's work gains the attention it deserves, then the future is indeed bright for the wonderful old tradition of Russian Realism.

“Enchanted by Georgia” opened on Saturday the 29th of October and will run for two months at the Georgian National Museum in Sighnaghi.