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Arsenalskoy mountain night
Niko Pirosmani (Pirosmanashvili) • Painting, 1908, 113×91 cm
Description of the artwork «Arsenalskoy mountain night»
"Arsenalskoy mountain night" - the first work of Pirosmani, estimated at a million (pounds). It was first exhibited in Tbilisi in 1919. The picture was kept in the State Museum of arts of Georgia up until the Soviet government decided to give her the French writer Louis Aragon. He was married to Elsa Triolet, the younger sister of Lily Brik. Most of his life he strongly supported Communist ideas. However, over time, Aragon disappointed in them and very negatively characterized the Soviet totalitarianism. Aragon donated the painting Pirosmani kept in the Moscow apartment of Lily Brik, and then moved to France.
However, Igor Obolensky, author of the biographical book "tales of Pirosmani", describes a completely different way "Arsenalskoy mountain of the night" went to France.
When the Bolsheviks came to power, Cyril Zdanevich, one of the two fellow artists who gave the world the Caucasian nugget Pirosmani and actively bought his paintings, remained in Georgia, then moved to Moscow, and his brother Ilya Zdanevich left for France. Cyril gave the state nearly the entire collection of paintings by Pirosmani - Grand at the time. For this reason the brothers had a conflict. Living in Europe Ilya didn't understand how you can give paintings, which are often bought at the last money. Cyril also knew that if he will not give himself, Moloch state will grind him and the paintings. And so there was a chance at least a few paintings to leave the family.
This gesture did not help, and in 50-ies in Moscow, Kirill Zdanevich was arrested. The occasion was a bottle of whiskey. From the point of view of the KGB made sense: drink whiskey - so spy the decaying bourgeoisie. But the main, do not call out loud the reason was the life of an Englishman who wanted to see Pirosmani. Six years Kirill Zdanevich spent in the camps for "political 58th". His wife to survive, gradually sold off the surviving paintings. That's when "Arsenalskoy mountain night" though, and turned to Lily Brik, and then moved to her sister and Louis Aragon.
For the first time at the auction the painting was exhibited in 2007. At Sotheby's she went to a private collection of over 1 million pounds (1.6 million dollars). The Director of the State art Museum of Georgia Gia Marsagishvili commented on the deal, saying that it was extremely low cost, because at the moment the real price of the painting was supposed to be 6-7 times higher. Next time in 2010, the painting was put up for auction auction house MacDougall's, and she went for 1,075 million pounds ($1.72 million). After that, at the Christie's auction, the painting was exhibited in 2015. The deal was done over the phone. The buyer – Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili paid for the painting 962,500 pounds ($1,486,100). "Arsenalskoy mountain" back in Georgia!
"Arsenalskoy mountain night" is a monumental landscape, a genre typical of Pirosmani. Time literally freezes in his paintings. In them there was no rush. The artist pulls out of the context of everyday life, any object, whether it be the blue of the sky, grandiose mountains, still life or people, and presents us with a cast of this object in the context of eternity – not the one that never ends, and that which in principle is going nowhere – it is nowhere. Stop the moment. A slight pause in the paintings of Pirosmani.
"Arsenalskoy mountain night" is written in black buckram. And we can feel the light brush strokes recreated from a black plastic disk of the moon, Arba and gloomy the top of the mountain, the distant lights of Tbilisi and implausible large fire.
Pirosmani often criticized for a lack of perspective and nedootsenennost sizes depicted in the paintings. And indeed, from the standpoint of realism, this is hardly a fire intended for warming the hands, and the fate of the house which is lower than the growth of man, and to think terribly. But that is the vision of Niko Pirosmani. After the artist we seem to move from object to object. They are United in a single whole story, but remain separate components with their own private space – the moon, the mountains, Tiflis lights, a huge bonfire and a tiny house.
Author: Alain Esaulova
However, Igor Obolensky, author of the biographical book "tales of Pirosmani", describes a completely different way "Arsenalskoy mountain of the night" went to France.
When the Bolsheviks came to power, Cyril Zdanevich, one of the two fellow artists who gave the world the Caucasian nugget Pirosmani and actively bought his paintings, remained in Georgia, then moved to Moscow, and his brother Ilya Zdanevich left for France. Cyril gave the state nearly the entire collection of paintings by Pirosmani - Grand at the time. For this reason the brothers had a conflict. Living in Europe Ilya didn't understand how you can give paintings, which are often bought at the last money. Cyril also knew that if he will not give himself, Moloch state will grind him and the paintings. And so there was a chance at least a few paintings to leave the family.
This gesture did not help, and in 50-ies in Moscow, Kirill Zdanevich was arrested. The occasion was a bottle of whiskey. From the point of view of the KGB made sense: drink whiskey - so spy the decaying bourgeoisie. But the main, do not call out loud the reason was the life of an Englishman who wanted to see Pirosmani. Six years Kirill Zdanevich spent in the camps for "political 58th". His wife to survive, gradually sold off the surviving paintings. That's when "Arsenalskoy mountain night" though, and turned to Lily Brik, and then moved to her sister and Louis Aragon.
For the first time at the auction the painting was exhibited in 2007. At Sotheby's she went to a private collection of over 1 million pounds (1.6 million dollars). The Director of the State art Museum of Georgia Gia Marsagishvili commented on the deal, saying that it was extremely low cost, because at the moment the real price of the painting was supposed to be 6-7 times higher. Next time in 2010, the painting was put up for auction auction house MacDougall's, and she went for 1,075 million pounds ($1.72 million). After that, at the Christie's auction, the painting was exhibited in 2015. The deal was done over the phone. The buyer – Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili paid for the painting 962,500 pounds ($1,486,100). "Arsenalskoy mountain" back in Georgia!
"Arsenalskoy mountain night" is a monumental landscape, a genre typical of Pirosmani. Time literally freezes in his paintings. In them there was no rush. The artist pulls out of the context of everyday life, any object, whether it be the blue of the sky, grandiose mountains, still life or people, and presents us with a cast of this object in the context of eternity – not the one that never ends, and that which in principle is going nowhere – it is nowhere. Stop the moment. A slight pause in the paintings of Pirosmani.
"Arsenalskoy mountain night" is written in black buckram. And we can feel the light brush strokes recreated from a black plastic disk of the moon, Arba and gloomy the top of the mountain, the distant lights of Tbilisi and implausible large fire.
Pirosmani often criticized for a lack of perspective and nedootsenennost sizes depicted in the paintings. And indeed, from the standpoint of realism, this is hardly a fire intended for warming the hands, and the fate of the house which is lower than the growth of man, and to think terribly. But that is the vision of Niko Pirosmani. After the artist we seem to move from object to object. They are United in a single whole story, but remain separate components with their own private space – the moon, the mountains, Tiflis lights, a huge bonfire and a tiny house.
Author: Alain Esaulova
