Georgian artist Varla Felix Varlamishvili

Georgian artist Varla Felix Varlamishvili (1903 – 1986)

Born in Kutaisi (Imereti) in the family of a financier, Felix Varlamishvili graduated from the Tiflis Art Academy. His teachers were Gigo Gabashvili, Yakob Nikoladze, Oscar Shmerling, Boris Vogel, and Joseph Charlemagne. At the age of 25, Varlamishvili moved to Paris and settled in Montparnasse. Having emigrated to France, Varla forever preserved the Georgian spirit, emphasizing that he painted all his paintings with love for Georgia.
Throughout his creative life, the painter actively exhibited his art in galleries and salons in France, Argentina, Belgium, Japan, the USA and Iran. However, real fame, as often happens, came to the artist after his death, and his paintings are constantly growing in price.
Felix Varlamishvili died in Paris and was buried in a cemetery in the Georgian estate Leville on the outskirts of the French capital.
In January 2019, a personal exhibition of his works, presented mainly from private collections, was held in Tbilisi for almost a month. Also, the museum has 10 paintings that his Danish wife, the artist Zira Binder, donated to the museum according to the artist’s will in 1987.

The most frequent motif of his work is everyday life: harvesting, making wine, catching fish, and preparing firewood. Meanwhile, these people do not look either poor or rich; neither happy nor unhappy – they are at peace in their affairs.

Works by Georgian artist Varla Felix Varlamishvili