1927-1992

He was born in Tulun, the son of a Georgian father and an Estonian mother. His family was exiled to the Irkutsk region in the 1920s and returned to Tbilisi in 1932. From 1942 to 1947, he studied at the Tbilisi Art College, and graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts in 1963. Since the 1960s, Alexander Bandzeladze has been interested in abstract composition, and his name is associated with the development of Georgian abstract expressionism and the formation of a group of Georgian non-conformists in the 1980s. His work has been an important milestone in the history of Georgian art. Main works: portraits of G. Tabidze (1951), D. Chichinadze (1952) and N. Chikovani (1957). A series of illustrations: "Arsen's Poem" (16 pages, awarded the Silver Medal of the All-Union Academy in 1957) and R. Kipling's "Mowgli" (104 illustrations, 1960). The "Arsen's Poem" was awarded a prize for its calligraphic, graphic and illustrative design at the International Biennale in Brno in 1966 and at the World Exhibition of the Best Books in Leipzig in 1968. From 1979 to 1988, Bandzeladze worked on the painting of the Didubian Church in Tbilisi. In 1993, he was posthumously awarded the State Prize of Georgia. He is buried in the courtyard of the same church.