Imereti-My Mother 1918

David Kakabadzé painted "Imereti-My Mother," a canvas awash with memories of a place and a person. He used oil paint to build up the image, with each brushstroke adding to the layered effect, almost like he's piecing together a memory. The colours are muted yet vibrant, the kind of colours that whisper rather than shout. The texture is smooth in parts, almost like glass, then rough and tactile, especially in the rendering of the landscape behind the figure. Look at the way the fields are divided into segments, each with its own colour. It’s a mosaic, an echo of the geometric abstraction that was gaining traction at the time. But, here, it feels intensely personal, tied to the land and the figure of his mother. This piece reminds me of Cezanne's landscapes, but with an added layer of emotional intensity. Like Cezanne, Kakabadzé used colour and form to construct space. But where Cezanne felt cool, Kakabadzé feels warm, steeped in personal history. Art is like a conversation, each artist responding to those who came before, creating something new in the process.