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I'm Beso Arbolishvili. I was born on the 17th of February 1955 in Georgia in Kakheti region, village Velisikhe. My father, Mikhail Arbolishvili was an artist, my mother was a teacher of piano, and thanks to these facts I was brought up in harmony with art.
There is a folk theatre in Velisikhe, where there performed great actors of their time, such as Khorava and others. My father worked as an artist there. In winter when it was cold in the theatre he had to paint the scenery at home. At the same time my mother gave music lessons, and we, my sister and I, played there. When my father stretched his painting in the room there wasn't enough spare space left even to have dinner. That is why when we wanted to dine he rolled up his pictures and after the meal unfolded it again and went on working. That stuck in my memory and I often dream about it.
My sister's name is Lela. She followed our mother's steps and became a teacher of music. She graduated from a musical college.
Now I have two children myself. They both are also connected with the world of art. My daughter writes stories and my son is a painter, just as I am. He won the first praise at First International Delphic Games among children, which took place in Tbilisi. He was 9 years old that time. His name is Mikhail Arbolishvili-junior.  My father made an important contribution to my development as a painter. He was my first teacher. He rendered great services to Georgian art by being the first who showed Niko Pirosmanishvili's fresco to the whole world. The fresco was in the wine cellar in the house of my father's friend. After my father's death my friends-restorers and I found out and restored another fresco by Pirosmanishvili. It was painted on the wall of the same wine cellar and then plastered. The picture hasn't been seen by anyone for about sixty years. The name of the first picture is "Black steam-engine", the name of the second one is "Bless us, wine cellar".
Georgia is a wonderful country with ancient history. Georgian people have never been nomads. Georgians appeared in the Caucasus and have been living there ever since. Not so long ago our anthropologists found a skull of an ancient man in the eastern part of Georgia. His age is considered to be 1,700,000 years. This year we celebrated three thousand years of Georgian state system.
When I was in Germany for the first time I was told that in Europe polyphony was discovered by Bach, while in Georgia it have always existed. It is known that USA sent a satellite, which was meant to contact other civilizations. Sound, voice was chosen to be an instrument of communication with alien beings, and as an example of the human voice a Georgian song "Chakrulo" was taken. I am especially proud that among songs and music of peoples all over the world exactly Georgian music was chosen. I would certainly be pleased if some day my pictures were exhibited to Georgian songs, but at the same time I would feel ill at ease - music seems to be too sublime for me.  Georgia is a wealthy country. And one of its riches is its splendid painting. Many of modern Georgian artists were my fellow-members of the course - they are Shalva Matuashvili, Merab Abramishvili, Irakliy Sutidze, Guiya Bugadze, Leva Kharanauli. I would like to point out some artists among so-called "painters of the fifties": Zurab Nizharadzeh, Edmond Kaladadzeh, Gipson Khundadzeh, Avto Varazi. I also highly rate painters of the older generation (the beginning of the century): Pirosmani, Kokobadzeh, Akhvlidiani. There are some painters who are not Georgians, but they are still Georgian artists, because they lived and worked in Georgia and their contribution to Georgian art is great - they are Bazhbeuk Melikov, Blotkin, Scherpilov, Shukhayev.
Among all the painters I would like to single out Niko Pirosminishvili (Pirosmani). He was an amazing person and he spent his life working constantly, as a bee. There is a wonderful story about him: that he sacrificed everything he had for the sake of buying flowers for a woman he loved, for an actress whose name was Margarita. There is nothing left after his death except his art and his great love.
I began painting when I was a child, but while growing up I felt lack of time more and more. I skied, jogged, played football, but when I grew older, in the 8th-9th form, and fell in love seriously for the first time in my life, I gave up everything and began painting. I did that at nights because of being shy of the father. So the things went on that way for about a month. I didn't even guess that my father knew everything. When the picture was over and I liked it, I showed my work to him. He was glad and scared at the same time. He was happy at the fact that he liked the picture, but my destiny as an artist scared him, because it's not easy to be a painter especially nowadays. But as for me, I can't imagine myself without art and any other profession seems impossible to me. I am nobody without art. My son also paints. And I can't even think of what else he could do. He would get lost in any other profession, he won't get lost only in the world of art.
When I decided to be an artist I entered Tbilisi State Academy of Art (that was in 1974) and I studied there till 1981. Then, since 1983 up to 1987, I studied in Tbilisi Branch of Moskow State Academy of Art under the guidance of Ucha M. Chaparidzeh, grant-aided by State Academy of Art of the USSR since 1983 up to 1987.  During our studying my fellow-members of the course and I among them didn't like to be methodically taught any drawing skills, but now I am grateful to my teachers that they drilled us, that they didn't let us work neglecting all laws of painting and relying only upon our imagination.
We, students taught each other too, we exchanged the experience, books, we competed against each other inside our company. My taste, my views were formed under the influence of my friends-painters. One of them - Sergo Kechadzeh - is my close friend. He taught me very much. I also had a friend Irakly Pardzhiani, who unfortunately died already. Once I imparted to him that I wanted to paint my night dream, but I couldn't do that. And then he said to me that one should not paint a dream, but should create such a picture that gives an impression of a dream while looking at it. In any art, no matter if we speak about poetry or painting, the most important thing is image, feeling, which remains after reading a poem or looking at a picture. There are such painters who draw carefully every detail of the picture, but create no image; and there are some artists, whose picture seems to be vague and uncertain, but it has got image and that impresses strongly. The purpose of an artist is to show not what he sees, but how he sees or what he feels.
Do I plan a picture beforehand? It's not me who plans, but all the life I have lived. I just try to let all the surrounding information through me and it remains on the canvas. All my most successful pictures are created the way that I don't remember the process of painting. I very seldom know what result can there be. All the information comes from upward - it passes through me, but it belongs to everybody. I am just a transmitter.
I work every day to be in good form, to let the information pass through me in the purest condition. As a priest should pray every day, the same way a painter should draw. A painter mustn't waste time. I always had many friends, I often received guests, but when I realized that there is little time left I began working very much - 14-15 hours a day, I became reserved and spent all the time in my studio. I know that I always must be ready to receive an impulse, which may turn out to be a picture.
People often ask me what branch of painting I refer myself to. In one of my interviews I said that I am just as I am. I am a painter without any "-isms". My art depends on my feelings, my mood. Mostly all my pictures are created under the influence of love. Love is on the whole the most important thing for me. I perceive love as a living being. It exists not only in the world of imagination, but in the real world too. Sometimes love hurts very much, love doesn't depend on us, it exists by itself.
All my pictures are very different, though some topics sometimes repeat. Among them is the one where night landscapes with steam engines are shown. It's a reminiscence of my childhood. Every year we went to Baguriani from Kakheti. Usually it was the time of the New Year holidays and we often had to meet the New Year in the train. The image of a train, which goes at full speed in the darkness and seems to capture all the time, the whole last year with it. I've got three pictures about it. Here I am glad to present one of them, which is called "Christmas night".  Another very prevalent topic of my painting is my sister. I have her interior portraits, at the piano, and in other variants.
It wouldn't be correct to say that I've got favorite pictures, but some pictures are very dear to me. For instance, when I was painting my diploma work "Family interior portrait", I got scared that I could fail in painting my mother's body. The time of defending of the diploma work had already been settled down, and I couldn't do anything. And then a very close person gave me a good piece of advice: to recall the way she was eating. I was eager to do it, but I couldn't. My mother means for me as for most Georgians the beginning of the whole world that's why it was really hard to think of her. And suddenly I understood what I had to do - just to use sole-colored red tone with no tints at all; red means love for me. But at the same time red is also a very dangerous color - it is also a color of hatred. But I didn't doubt a minute that I will have exactly the color of love. And I managed to do that; I was satisfied.  There is another picture that is dear to me. It is "94th-95th academic year". Once, when my mother was already a pensioner for about a year, I came into her study and saw music on the piano and two chairs in front of it, just as if my mother was waiting for a student. It inspired me for painting a picture, where there are flowers instead of music. The flowers are also red, dark-red.
Now I would like to speak about my hobby. I was born in Baguriani - it is a well-known state alpine skiing center, where championships of the USSR and Europe took place. I ski since I am three and I am still fond of alpine skiing.
But the most important and valuable thing for me is winemaking. In Kakheti I make my own wine. I have different kinds of grape and I make three or four wines from it. I make red wine - saperavi, green wine - manavskoye, and white wine - rkatsiteli. I use my own recipes and that is why I manage to make absolutely special wine.
I feel that my power and the power of winemaking process join together and that helps my wine be exactly as I want it to be. Not only taste is important in wine, but also the way it influences a person. One doesn't go drunk of good wine, but fills with creative, constructive power. Wine is a living being. It is in a certain way like a human being. Young wine is as a teenager restless, and then it calms down, becomes steadier, mature.  I am a professional painter. I am a member of The Union of Artists of the USSR since the year 1998. Since 1976 I participate in republic exhibitions and since 1984 - already in exhibitions of the Soviet Union. Since 1989 I take part in international exhibitions. My first personal exhibition took place in Hobby Gallery in Tbilisi (1997), when I was already 42. The second one was in State Picture Gallery in Tbilisi (1998). Besides my exhibitions took place in hotel "Sheraton Metekhi Palace", but they were private, elite, only for corps diplomatique.
In the 90-s I was in Germany where there were exhibitions of Georgian artists. I was in Ruhr, Duisburg, Keln, Dusseldorf.
In 1998 an American company "MVP International" offered me to take part in a program meant to improve American understanding of Georgian art. I was invited to Virginia Commonwealth University. I met with young American painters there. The basis of the American art is first of all liberation, but not the skill, that's why it hurt me mostly that they had nobody to talk to, nobody to teach them how to draw or how to mix colors. But everything changes now, and American view on art teaching too. So, they were very satisfied with the way we spent time together. I also got pleasure of communicating with them.
In 1994 I received an offer to publish my biography in the eleventh edition of "Who's who" guide.
It was also very important for me to learn that three of my pictures "At the waterfall", "Morning" and "The nude" were sold at the auction of Phillips, the pictures are printed in two Phillips catalogues. One of the most significant exhibitions for me took place in International Monetary Fund in Washington. There is also a constant exhibition in Alla Roger's Gallery in Washington.  A collection of about thirty of my paintings stays in Richmond, the capital of Virginia in USA, at Nana Maraneli's. A well-known violinist Liana Isakadzeh, who lives in Munchen now, bought about six pictures. Some forty pictures are in Moscow at the moment, and Oleg V. Lee has got a few of them. I am very glad that one of my best collection stays at such a wonderful person as Oleg Lee. He deserves having my best pictures. I hope that our friendship lasts for a long time.
But most of my pictures are in Tbilisi, and about 200 pictures are already sold - they are now in different parts of the world, from Australia up to Canada. And it's wonderful - because real life of a picture begins after it has been sold.
Nana Maraneli works at my affairs in America now. She was an expert of Sotby auction for 4 years, and an expert of Christy auction - for 2 years. She made a list of exhibitions and auctions where my pictures participated or still participate: ¥ Alla Roger's Gallery, Washington, DC, USA, 1999 ¥ "Deco In" International Art Festival, Berlin, Germany. 1997 ¥ International Monitory Fund, Washington, DC, USA, 1997 ¥ Freedom Gallery, West Port, CT, USA, 1997 ¥ Rein Ruhr Georgian Art Center, Hessen, Germany, 1996 ¥ "Georgian Art" in Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA, 1996 ¥ Second International Art Festival, Ankara, Turkey, 1996 ¥ International Art Festival, Boston, USA, 1996 ¥ "Deco In" International Art Festival, Berlin, Germany. 1996 ¥ First International Art Festival, Ankara, Turkey, 1995 ¥ Culture Center "Sanat", Baku, Azerbaijan, 1995 ¥ Steiner House, Bonn, Germany, 1994 ¥ Culture Center, El Kuwait, Kuwait, 1994 ¥ Georgian Culture Center, Ingolstadt, Germany, 1994 ¥ Georgian Culture Center "Mziuri", Moscow, Russia, 1992 ¥ Culture Center, Maiderich, Germany, 1991 ¥ Art Center, Duisburg, Germany, 1991 ¥ Phillips Auction "Russian Art", London, U.K., 1990 ¥ Paris, France, 1988 ¥ Central House of Artists, Moscow, USSR, 1984 ¥ National Picture Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia, 1984  One of the most interesting stories, connected with my pictures is the history of "White peacock". The family of George Hicks bought it and then it was presented to Florida Cathedral Church. When I asked how could a peacock be in a church they explained that I had such white color in this picture, that it doesn't matter for them, what there is in the picture. The painting is full of religious sense because of the light it radiates.
I would like to thank Trading House "Seoul" in the person of Robert V., Viacheslav V., Oleg V. and Alexander V. Lee for their support and their interest that they expressed towards Georgian art. During our cooperation an idea of creating a fund that could be called "Arbo-Lee" has come to us. This fund will aim to carry out exhibitions in Georgia, Russia, and Korea. We decided to connect art and business and I hope that together we will gain the result that could be called "art without boarders", when Russians, Georgians and Koreans communicate in the language of art. There is only one God, only one Earth, and art must help people realize that.
For an observer art is beauty. For a painter it is something like a time machine. When I look at my picture I go back to the time when I created it. I can't even call this a pleasure, it is just happiness. The process of painting itself is suffer, but this suffer gives me satisfaction. | ||||||
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