“The Gospel of Mark and John”

2015 – ‘Irakli Parjiani. The Jubilee Year – 65^th Anniversary.’ / ‘The Gospel of Mark and John,’ the First presentation./ Baia Gallery, The Art Palace of Georgia. Tbilisi, Georgia.

The hand-written book “The Gospel of Mark and John” made by Irakli Parjiani in the 1980es, a major piece of contemporary Georgian art, has already become a unique monument of the 20^th century cultural heritage.

This is an exclusive fact of making a hand-written Gospel and illustrating it within the space of Georgian culture of the above period. The event becomes the more noteworthy if to remember that the process of working on the Gospel took place during the existence of the Soviet Union, and to make such a piece would be quite perilous for the artist, while the presentation thereof during the said period of time and within the said environment – absolutely unimaginable.

The piece made under such circumstances and carefully preserved by the family of Irakli Parjiani for the years, requires special conditions of storage and great care. The Parjiani version of the Gospel, made like the medieval hand-written books, is a full and completed manuscript text illustrated and designed with diversified décor of capitals and footers. Being both traditional and innovative, the Gospel is characterized by the coexistence of canonical iconography of hand-written religious book and of the author’s interpretation. Apart from its religious meaning, the book is the original model of Parjiani’s art. All the motives, themes, characters or the system of symbols of his works take turns from page to page. This is where virtually all the currents of his art are gathered.

Amazingly, during the late 1970es, in Georgia of the Soviet period, a modern artist made, like those medieval scribes of the Gospel, a piece of stunning scale and volume, completed two of the four Gospels – “The Gospel of Mark and John” leaving “Mark” as a stitched book, while “John” – as the unstitched one, by way of detached sheets. Later, having begun to work on “The Gospel of Luke”, he made a few illustrations, although the process was never completed.