The Russian Academy Of Arts

On May 21, 2008 in UNESCO Headquarters in Paris within the framework of the Annual Meeting of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors Zurab Tsererteli shared his initiatives implemented by him as an artist, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, state and public figure.

The President of the Russian Academy of Arts extended his gratitude to UNESCO and UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura for efficient support to the Russian Academy of Arts in the jubilee year – the 250th anniversary of its foundation. UNESCO included it in the list of dates with which it was associated in 2007.  Tsereteli also thanked the Organization for assistance in the arrangement of a big theme exhibition in UNESCO headquarters. He noted that the jubilee was a significant event for the Russian culture and it was UNESCO that once again proved the high status of the Russian Academy of Arts both in Russia and in the world.

Continuing his efforts in fighting against international terrorism,  Tsereteli sculpted a memorial bust to former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello who was tragically killed on August 19, 2003 in a terrorist attack on the United Nations headquarters in Iraq along with his 21 colleagues. The bust was unveiled on June 28, 2007 in a park near the United Nations  Office in Geneva. The artworks depicting pain and sympathy, love of a man, ideas of good and peace always reverberate in viewers’ souls, disclose new depths  in comprehension of human nature. They make people feel compassion  thus purifying them. The monuments commemorating victims of world tragedies become a kind of a tuning fork for everyone’s morality.

Tsereteli stressed the significance of UNESCO joint cultural and educational programs. On September 23, 2007 the UNESCO headquarters in Paris hosted a presentation of the Year of Child in Moscow program held under the auspices of UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura,  Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Russian Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO Vladimir Kalamanov. The event showcased folklore art, symphony music, work by celebrated masters of fine arts and gifted children. During the presentation  Tsereteli gave a masterclass for French and Russian children.

The President of the Russian Academy of Arts gave much attention to the centuries-old exchange between French and Russian art and culture.  Since its foundation, the Russian Academy of Arts has been one of the best specimens of such mutually beneficial collaboration. It was after Peter the Great’s visit to the French Academy, that in 1724 he signed a decree on establishment of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Arts.  For over 250 years, the Russian Academy of Arts can boast of its close cultural contacts with France, in particular with the French Academy of Fine Arts, the Institute of France. Among Honorary Members of the Russian Academy of Arts are such prominent French figures of culture as Helen Correre d’ Ancosse, Pierre Cardin, Arnaud d’ Hauterives and others. 

Zurab Tsereteli submitted a number of initiative on potential cultural collaboration with UNESCO. In connection with holding the Year of France in Russia and the Year of Russia in France in 2010, the Russian Academy of Arts has elaborated an exhibition program including the most comprehensive displays of Russian Academic art school, the masterpieces of the 15th – 21st centuries from collections of the Academy Research Museum, Moscow Museum of Modern Art as well as artworks by members of the Russian Academy of Arts, best diploma works of alumni of I. Repin St. Petersburg  State Academy Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute. The integral part of the above shows will be seminars, conferences, lectures, round-table talks  on problems of modern art  and history of cultural ties between France and Russia. The program is aimed at both fostering relations with France and gaining a better understanding of Russian art school in the world.

Among  his sculptures dedicated to the history of Russia and its role in the world context Zurab Tsereteli presented his two recent sculptural compositions: Night at the Ipatiev House monument commemorating the tragic destiny of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family as well as Wives of the Decembrists composition in honor of the great deed of eleven women for the sake of family and love  who shared the fate of their exiled beloved men.   

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