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[KAKABADZE] davit k’ak’abadzis suratebis gamopena, p’arizi 1920-27. [i.e. the Exhibition of David Kakabadze’s artworks. Paris 1920-1927]

Item #2358

Tbilisi: P’oligrapt’r. me-3 st’., 1928. [4] pp.: ill. 24x16.5 cm. In original publisher’s wrappers. Minor tear, otherwise very good. The catalog includes an article detailing David Kakabadze’s art theory.

This is a catalog of the exhibition mounted by David Kakabadze at the Orient Hotel (Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi) after his return from Paris in May 1928. While the exhibition received criticism for displaying “weird” cubes and glasses, it still proved to be a turning point in the artist’s career. It was after this exhibition that Kote Marjanishvili (1872-1933) invited Kakabadze to produce set
designs for the play “Hoppla! We are Alive” (Ernst Toller) at his newly opened Kutaisi-Batumi 2nd State Drama Theater. Kakabadze’s main innovation was to integrate the movie projector into the set design, thereby showing on the screen a film shot specifically for the play.

Directed by Kote Marjanishvili and Dodo Antadze (1900-1978), the season’s opening play (in 1928) was a major success: “David Kakabadze gets all the credit for the aforementioned achievements. His decorative constructions, and, to be more exact – decorative building, was created in accordance with the principles of leftist art,” wrote Karlo Kaladze in the “Proletarian Literature” magazine.

“Hoppla! We are Alive” marked the start of Kakabadze’s fruitful career, first in theater, and later in cinema. In 1931, he produced a documentary film, “The Old Monuments of Georgia,” which is now lost. Kakabadze emerged as one of the founders of the extremely successful Georgian school of scenography.

Only copy found in Princeton University Library.

Price: $5,500.00