Georgy Frangulyan

Georgy Frangulyan's name is a byword for the greatest achievements of the Russian plastic arts. A sculptor renowned in Russia and beyond, he has devoted the entire arc of his career to the practical validation of the specific attributes that make sculpture an art form, and to the affirmation of the sculptural principle as the main expressive means of all figurative art.

At the core of this master artist's hallmark style is an organic monumentality - rooted in an interpretation of multiple traditions; first and foremost, the Classical one - recognizable even in his smaller works. After a period exploring the narrative and the superficially naturalistic, Frangulyan followed in the footsteps of his professional forerunners from the 60s' generation, seeking to return to sculpture the primordial power of form. His oeuvre is eloquent proof of the view that sculpture's raison d'etre lies in dramatizing the conflict between mass and space.

A master of the powerful figurative gesture, as a sculptor, graphic artist, designer and shaper of the architectural and spatial, Frangulyan is a highly-cultured and multidisciplinary creator par excellence. He makes indoor and monumental sculpture using various materials, including bronze, marble, wood, ceramics, and glass, and produces drawings and paintings.

Frangulyan's path as an independent professional began during his student days. Starting in 1967, Georgy has been a fixture on the international exhibition circuit; from the 1980s onward, his sculpture has received multiple awards at European competitions.

Working in the genre of monumental sculpture - his memorials and monuments stand in many Russian cities, as well as in France, Italy, Belgium, Israel and other countries - Frangulyan has perfected the art of harmonizing his works' participation in the urban fabric, allowing them to coexist respectfully with the surrounding architectural reality.

Georgy Frangulyan was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, spending the first 11 years of his life in the Sololaki neighborhood, densely built and rich in architectural variety. He remembers: "I was born and grew up surrounded by mountains, and so my perception of space was formed up there. When you see clouds going by below you, you see eagles flying under you, and you follow their gliding with the mountains as a backdrop; you watch the air currents, the rising fog, and that's when you first get the sensations that determine what your life will be like."

These days, Georgy Frangulyan works in a studio housed in an antique wooden villa, located in the center of Moscow. A neighboring house used to belong to the great Russian painter Ilya Repin, and hosted fellow greats, among them Isaac Levitan, Leo Tolstoy, and Valentin Serov. Apart from the workshop, the courtyard features a foundry and a gallery of sculpture, paintings, and drawings. The entire space comprises a vibrant one-of-a-kind domain created by a true artist and radiating an atmosphere of the beautiful fleeting moment, the spark of emotion, and triumph over the quotidian.

Frangulyan's sculpture is in the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, both in Moscow, at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the Museo Dantesco in Ravenna, the Municipal Library of Colmar (France), the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, museums in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Berdyansk (Ukraine), the museum collections of Sochi, Tambov, and Kaliningrad (Russian Federation), as well as private collections in Italy, the US, France, Sweden, Spain, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria.