Batu Siharulidze

Georgian sculptor Isidore (Batu) Siharulidze was born in Kutaisi to a veterinarian father, Nodar Siharulidze, and a philologist mother, Tina Darchia. His uncle, Tite Siharulidze, and cousin, Davit Siharulidze, who was ten years older than Batu, were both sculptors; the opportunity to see and learn from their work led to, and nurtured, the future artist’s interest in sculpture.

At age fourteen, Siharulidze moved from Kutaisi to Tbilisi and enrolled at the Iakob Nikoladze Art College. From 1979 to 1985, he studied in the department of sculpture at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. His instructor was the sculptor Gogi Ochiauri, whose mentoring shaped  Siharulidze’s mastery of the human figure, encouraged experimentation, and instilled a balance between Georgian artistic traditions and contemporary practice, while also teaching human values through a personal example.

After graduating from the Academy, Siharulidze continued his postgraduate studies at the All-Union Academy of Arts under the guidance of the sculptor Merab Merabishvili. In 1991–94, Siharulidze worked as an assistant professor in the sculpture department of the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and taught sculpture, composition, and drawing at Merab Berdzenishvili’s studio.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought profound hardship to Georgia and its people, particularly artists, prompting many young Georgian artists to relocate to Europe and the United States. They included Siharulidze, who in 1994 left Georgia for the United States, settling in Washington, DC. In 1997, he moved to Richmond, Virginia. From 2004 to 2019, he lived and worked in Boston, before returning to Richmond, where he has lived ever since. Shortly after his arrival in the US, he joined the Washington Sculptors Group.

In the winter of 1994, Washington, DC–based sculptor Chris Gardner presented Siharulidze’s clay sculpture A Rider at the Chris Gardner Sculpture Space in Georgetown, where Norton Dodge saw the artist’s work for the first time. Upon encountering A Rider, Dodge was immediately captivated and decided to acquire it. The work was later cast in bronze and became part of the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum.

Rider (1985, ZAM, D00365) depicts a man on horseback who lacks both hands and a head. The horse is also missing body parts: it is represented without its hooves and as if its head has been sawn off and reattached. Upon closer examination, the animal seems more like a donkey than a horse, with a small body, no ears, and a head shape characteristic of that of a donkey. The sculptor had previously created Boy on a Donkey (1984, painted plaster), and a comparison reveals that the Rider features nearly identical proportions and form. Given that Christ entered Jerusalem on a donkey, the artist may be making a subtle religious allusion. In this context, the fragmentation—the absence of the rider’s head and the donkey’s hooves—can be read symbolically, evoking Christ’s vulnerability and sacrifice for humankind.

The sculpture also invites viewers’ personal interpretations—perhaps the rider represents the sculptor himself, stripped of his head and hands, the very instruments of his ideas and actions, amid a seemingly hopeless present and an uncertain future. It was made during a stagnant period in Soviet Georgia, and as a young artist just starting out, Siharulidze would have felt the weight of uncertainty and the fragility of his own position.

The sculpture features aspects of expressionism and surrealism. It presents a semi-naturalistic horse/donkey carrying a rider whose upper body dissolves into an abstract, hollow form. By transforming the classical equestrian monument into an existential statement, the artist shifts the narrative from heroism and authority to fragility and instability. The lack of a head disrupts figural integrity, functioning as a symbolic marker of absence. Combined with the rough, tactile surface, it evokes psychological introspection and inner fragmentation. This approach is characteristic of the artist’s oeuvre.

Several months after Dodge acquired the work, Siharulidze created a clay bust portrait of the collector. While grounded in the principles of academic sculpture and bearing a resemblance to its subject, Portrait of Norton Dodge is enriched by modern artistic approaches, including abstraction and expressive surfaces that evoke the subject’s inner life. Batu’s use of rough modeling and visible process reflects a focus on interiority rather than smooth finish, an approach that invites parallels with modernist sculptors such as Auguste Rodin. Meanwhile, its compositional clarity—the head as dominant mass, the neck as column, the torso as base—recalls the reductive formal logic of Constantin Brâncuși. Dodge kept the cast bronze version of the portrait in his house in Maryland until his death in 2011. After Dodge’s death, the bronze sculpture was moved to the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum.

Siharulidze describes his creative practice as “abstract figurative art,” as he creates images of the universe through the generalization, manipulation, and abstraction of objects and natural forms. His work continues the legacy of modernism and becomes part of a “deliberate retrospective” that offers a renewed understanding of various “isms,” including the neo-avant-garde, the post-avant-garde, and the Transavantgarde. [1]

At the start of Siharulidze’s career, he interpreted natural forms in diverse ways—from cubist generalization to abstraction. Organic forms are treated according to the specific properties of the material, and his artistic language emphasizes both the character and texture of the medium; indeed, the material itself enhances the expressive potential of the work. This diversity becomes even more pronounced in the later stages of his oeuvre. Siharulidze progressively moved from the concrete toward greater abstraction, with his visual language adopting more allegorical qualities and conceptual thinking coming to the fore. For instance, in Tide Man 1 (1986, painted plaster), human facial features remain discernible, and the body retains a close relationship to academic representation. Tide Man 2 (2006, plaster), in contrast, offers an abstracted interpretation of the same subject, wherein meaning emerges solely through the tense rhythm of the forms, the treatment of the material’s surface, the textured marks left by the chisel on the marble, and the suggestion of traces of rope.

Alongside the refinement of his artistic skills, Siharulidze’s spontaneity and intuitive decision-making became increasingly pronounced. A compelling example is the sculpture Head (2005, clay), which originated when the artist perceived the imprint of his own fingers on a leftover piece of clay as a complete artistic form. Recognizing its expressive potential, he further articulated it by incising lines across the surface. Despite its small scale, the sculpture leaves a powerful impression through its unexpected outlines and striking expressiveness. Head functions as a personal gesture, almost an artistic autograph, bearing the imprint of Siharulidze’s inner state. Here, the autonomy and expressivity of the clay are revealed with particular clarity and force.

Throughout his artistic development, he developed a sculptural technique that can be described as plasticity unfolding in space. These works operate on the threshold between two- and three-dimensional forms, where positive and negative spaces alternate, generating a dynamic yet harmonious unity. Here, decorativeness plays a significant role, adding a further layer of visual resonance.

This technique finds a compelling expression in Fishing Woman (2007), a small-scale bronze sculpture measuring 19 × 12.5 × 2 inches. The work appears almost like a picture or relief, yet it resists complete two-dimensionality. It is neither fully round nor entirely flat, existing instead in an intermediate, liminal state. The semi-volumetric treatment effectively conveys the fluid movement of water. Remarkably, the artist creates a convincing illusion of depth through predominantly planar forms, depicting water and swimming fish within a linear, grid-like structure. At the same time, he draws the viewer into the arduous labor of a young Chinese woman, whose bent back carries an abstracted load, symbolizing the weight of physical toil.

Throughout his oeuvre, he engages with classical forms and motifs, transforming them through abstraction and expressive distortion to explore existential and psychological concerns. The artist also frequently explores mythological and religious themes, reflecting on enduring values through the language of sculpture. His stylized images present tangible variations of texture and form, dynamically unfolding in time and space. This is exemplified by Siharulidze’s Altar of Humanity (2001, bronze), a small sculpture conceived in a manner distinctly different from that of Fishing Woman.

Altar of Humanity serves as a metaphor for universal human concerns—of suffering and the salvation of humankind. We recognize the form of an abstracted table with thirteen indentations engraved upon its surface, evoking the vessels of Christ and his twelve apostles. Viewed from above, the table assumes the shape of a crucified figure, upon which these indentations can be read as wounds or cuts. The table rests upon two hands and two feet, once again alluding to the Passion of Christ and reinforcing the sacred content of the work. On the back, one can discern the figure of a man with bent legs, arms pulled behind him, and head turned to the side. This strained and awkward posture suggests a tortured body. The visible scars resemble rope marks on a figure who has been bound for a long period—a metaphor for the suffering inherent in sacrifice offered upon the altar of humanity.

Siharulidze’s work is influenced by medieval Georgian metalwork, reliefs, and ornamentation. The sculptor also finds inspiration in ancient art—Greek, Roman, and Egyptian—as well as in modernist artists such as Henry Moore and Constantin Brâncuși. His artistic language and methodology adapt to scale—whether he is producing an intimate small-scale work or a monumental statue—yet the foundational principles of his practice remain constant, firmly rooted in meticulous observation of natural objects and forms. In wood, stone, or bronze, his oeuvre embodies enduring aesthetic and cultural values, cultivating a sustained relationship between materiality and meaning that reveals both the physical presence and the expressive potential of the natural world. As the artist says: “In sculpture, just like in music, harmony plays an important role. The positive form gives way to a negative one. I begin to mix, combine, and bind these forms into a harmonious unity the way a composer does. It is a pleasant thing to do, as if I was creating musical harmony. I love forms and their combinations!” [2]

The period of 1990–2010 was especially productive for Siharulidze. The artist created works that are on permanent display in sculpture gardens, parks, and public spaces. In 1997, Siharulidze became an assistant professor at Virginia State University. In 2000, he was awarded the Governor’s Award for the Arts in Richmond, Virginia. From 2004 to 2019, he was an associate professor and chairman of undergraduate and graduate studies in the sculpture department at Boston University.

Siharulidze’s works are featured in various museums and other permanent locations: Modern Art Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia; Rustavi Sculpture Park, Rustavi, Georgia; B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Museum, Washington, DC; Henrico County High School, Richmond, Virginia; Zimmerli Art Museum,  Rutgers University, New Jersey; Andres Institute of Art, Brookline, New Hampshire; Contemporary Art Museum & Sculpture Garden, Acton, Massachusetts; Treadwell’s Art Mill, Bradford, Great Britain; Tomino City Center, Spain; Uttarayan Foundation Sculpture Park, Baroda, India; Fuzhou City Museum, Fuzhou, China; Tongling City Park, Tongling, China; Jilin University, Changchun, China; Changchun Sculpture Park, Changchun, China; Hui’an City Display, Hui’an, China; Penza Art Museum & Legend Sculpture Garden, Penza, Russia; Russia Peace Garden, border of Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece; Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey; Aspat Sculpture Museum, Bodrum, Turkey; Mersin Sculpture Garden, Mersin, Turkey; Cerveira International Sculpture Garden, Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal.

Mzia Chikhradze

Notes:

1. Belting, Hans. The End of History of Art? Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

2. Chikhradze, Mzia. Batu Siharulidze. Tbilisi: Cézanne, 2023: 78.