Meir Pichhadze

Untitled, 1998, Oil and ink on canvas, 60X80 cm. Signed and dated. Provenance: Simone and Jean Tiroche Collection.

Estimated price: $5,000 - 7,000

Sold for: 4600

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About: Meir Pichhadze

Pichhadze was born in Georgia and immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 17, this was after he had already studied painting for a few years, following in Makvalla’s footsteps (his older sister), and despite of his father who was against it. After Makvalla’s death in 1979, Meir decided to let go of the past and change his painting style - in order to do that, he turned to study at the Kalisher art school in 1982. Being an esteemed painter, he was accepted straight away to the second year. Saying that, he also suffered from insecurities due to a lack of fluency in Hebrew, a stutter that characterized his speech until the age of 26, a heavy Georgian accent and alienation, which is a common thing for many immigrants, even for years after making the transition. Painting was a wonderful way for Meir Pichhadze to overcome all of these things, and indeed he was utterly invested in it - considered to be an artist who lived and breathed his art. Pichhadze is considered one of the most courageous and unconventional painters, who did not allow artistic conventions to tie him down. For example, one of Pichhadze's distinguishing features was his choice to start his paintings on black canvases rather than the usual white ones. His explanation was he "approached the blackness with a flashlight and illuminated it" - and indeed his work was characterized by constant tension between existential darkness and flashes of light. Meir Pichhadze’s typical free spirit also led his creation to be versatile in its wide range of styles, and to focus on many subjects: in Georgia he painted peasants and created traditional copper art (for this was the focus of his studies); At the beginning of his career in Israel his paintings were very surreal. Later on came the romantic landscapes paintings, bordering on kitsch (something that did not deter Pichhadze, who distinguished between several types of kitsch and in any case saw it as a legitimate element in the art world). Classical portraits: Works in which children's drawings are combined, paintings in the style of figurative realism, paintings that examined the image of the wandering Jew, and more. Pichhadze's paintings also tended to intertwine different motifs, especially the constant desire to avoid the pitfalls of clear definitions.