Imereti 1946

David Kakabadzé made this painting, Imereti, with oil on canvas. There is something beautiful about how Kakabadzé has used small blocks of color to build up this landscape. Each mark feels deliberate, like a puzzle piece carefully placed to create the whole. It’s artmaking as a process of construction. Looking closely, you can see the texture of the canvas coming through the paint in areas, giving the painting a kind of raw, unfinished quality. The colors are earthy and muted, with greens, browns, and blues dominating the palette. The way he's used thick, opaque strokes, especially in the foreground, gives the landscape a sense of depth. But it's the jagged line of the river at the bottom left that really grabs me, it suggests a hidden energy running beneath the surface of the landscape. I'm reminded of Cezanne, in the way he broke down forms into geometric shapes, but Kakabadzé’s work has a unique, almost naive quality that sets it apart. Art isn't about answers, it's about conversations and exploration.