We only have a tenth of the painter's work left, who died and was buried we don't know where in 1918. And without the Zdanévitch brothers perhaps it would even have completely disappeared: when Kirile Zdanévitch saw a few paintings by Pirosmani, found by his friend Mikhail Le Dentu who came to Tiflis to study Caucasian art, he became enthusiastic about this “Georgian Giotto”, which he immediately introduced to his brother. Determined to flush out this unknown genius, Ilya Zdanevitch took advantage of the Christmas holidays of 1912 to search for and find this “all hunched old man, with the sick face of an incurable drunkard and with moist, black, inflamed, frightening eyes”, who, “from his hand raised, trembling, traces with a brush the word: MEAL”. In a precious black notebook, Ilya feverishly writes down everything the lonely wanderer tells him. Confident of his art despite his physical distress, his repeated requests for money and his almost permanent drunkenness, Pirosmani laments: “We spoil everything I do: for example, this fresco, there is a hare, what is the point of a Hare ? – but I was asked: draw a hare. For my honor, I draw it, so as not to get in trouble. »

Extract from the article by Emmanuel Daydé published in No. 109 of the Art Absolument magazine. Published on January 11, 2024.

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