Zurab Tsereteli, Polarizing Russian Sculptor of Colossal Works, Dies at 91
His death was announced by Sergei Shagulashvili, his assistant. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sent a condolence note to Mr. Tsereteli's family, calling him 'an outstanding representative of multinational Russian culture.'
An admirer of Mr. Putin, Mr. Tsereteli unveiled a towering bronze statue of him in 2004, dressed in a belted judo tunic. (The work was so poorly received, however, that it remained with Mr. Tsereteli at his gallery.)
Mr. Tsereteli's exuberant work largely defined post-Soviet Russian aesthetics. Flamboyant and vivacious, he was able to charm his way across geopolitical boundaries in earning the position of unofficial court artist in the Kremlin in the 1990s while also working with the government of his native Georgia as it tried to distance itself from Moscow. Mr. Tsereteli's statue of St. George slaying the dragon towers over Freedom Square in Tbilisi, the capital of the sculptor's native Georgia. It replaced a monument to Vladimir Lenin after the fall of the Soviet Union. Credit... Gunter Fischer/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images
In Georgia, where many locals condemned him for staying in Russia, he built the Freedom Monument in Tbilisi, the capital, which replaced a statue of Vladimir Lenin in the main square after the Soviet Union's collapse.
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