Tamari Abakelya

Tamar Abakelia (also spelled as Tamara Abakeliya; Georgian: თამარ აბაკელია; Russian: Тама́ра Абаке́лия; 19 August 1905 – 14 May 1953) was a Georgian sculptor, theater designer and illustrator. She was granted the title of Honored Artist of the Georgian SSR in 1942. Born in Khoni, Imereti (then part of Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire), Tamar Abakelia graduated from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in 1929 and taught there beginning in 1938. Among Abakelia's works were graphic illustrations for Nikolay Tikhonov, Shota Rustaveli, David of Sasun, Vazha-Pshavela as well as stage decorations for the Rustaveli and Marjanishvili theaters and costume designs for the films Arsena (1937), Giorgi Saakadze (1942), and David Guramishvili (1945). Many of her achievements were in the field of sculpture. Noted for the dynamism of composition and artistically rounded forms, Abakelia was responsible for much of the progress of Soviet Georgian sculpture. She sculptured friezes on the Museum of Marxism–Leninism in Tbilisi, depicting the various phases of socialist construction in Georgia (1936–37). Abakelia died in Tbilisi in 1953 and was buried there, at the Didube Pantheon.