Vernissage Gallery presents artworks by Otar Chkhartishvili, from the personal collection of Hans Heiner Buhr.

Exhibition will open on April 23 and will be on view till May 8.

How I Met Otar Chkhartishvili

In the autumn of 1996, my friend Otar Laliashvili brought Otar Chkhartishvili to visit me one afternoon in Rustavi. A stocky, medium-sized man with a short crew cut, dressed in dark blue and black checked flannel shirt, practical vest and wide trousers — he looked like a craftsman. With sharp, quick eyes he immediately began questioning me: what kind of art was being made in the West, what I was doing in Georgia, which artists I admired.

I sensed immediately a very alert mind — intelligent, with Gurian humor and natural authority. Among the artists of Rustavi, he was regarded as "the undisputed authority" — above all because of his unbending character during the difficult years of being an artist in the 1970s and 80s. Since there was no competition between us, we got along very well from the start. I was often at his home, and we would drink heavy Georgian wine with him, Nunu, and sometimes his daughter Nato, and eat lobio.

A few weeks later, we drove with Otar, Nunu and Teona into the mountains of the Zivi range behind the Gombori Pass and spent a wonderful day painting en plein-air. I painted at least four quick pieces while Otar worked slowly, building layer after layer on a single landscape with a view of Mount Zivi. The women laughed and prepared a picnic. Otari worked tirelessly on that one composition, telling me that with each new step the painting became more complex and better. By the time darkness fell, it had acquired an uncanny presence, structure and depth. Still, he was not satisfied — he wanted to continue working on it back in the studio.

I never saw that painting again. But that afternoon has remained alive in my memory ever since.

Hans Heiner Buhr

15.04.2026