Big guns
Until recently I knew only two contemporary mosaicists from the USSR. One was Valery – a former resident of the Ukraine who worked briefly at Mosaic Workshop. Familiar with making mosaics at a monumental scale, he found our routines rather limited in scope. His daily life as a mosaicist involved making astronauts for the side of tower blocks to celebrate Soviet achievements in space. The other artist I knew about was Zurab Tsereteli. He may be familiar to you too, as he is something of a phenomenon.
It is hard to sum up his achievements. He has many awards. He has been honoured with the title ‘Philanthropist’ by the foundation ‘Philanthropists of the Century’. He is married to a Princess who claims to be descended from a Byzantine Emperor. He is both President of the Russian Academy of Arts, and Director of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.
He also has his own museum, the Zurab Tsereteli Gallery, where you can see his life-size statue of Vladimir Putin. Life-size is small for Tsereteli who has grandeur of vision. A number of his works have been given to the United States. One symbolic sculpture, ‘Good Defeats Evil’ found in the grounds of the UN building, is made from old Cruise and Pershing Missiles: St George fights the dragon of nuclear war. Another in St Petersburg, of Peter the Great, is the seventh biggest sculpture in the world. His mighty memorial to the victims of 9/11 ‘To the Struggle Against World Terrorism’ was a gift from the people of Russia to those of the USA. From a bronze tower of 106 feet high, hangs a 40 foot long teardrop. It stands beside the Hudson River in Bayonne, New Jersey.
His mosaics are similarly awe-inspiring. Here are some images of panels of his work in production. The scale is staggering indeed.
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