Goudji

Biography of Goudji

Born in Georgia, Goudji studied sculpture at the Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts from 1958 to 1962. Among his highly talented teachers was Choukhaeiev, a Russian painter from the Ecole de Paris in France in the 1920s, who taught him drawing. In 1964, Goudji moved to Moscow. At 23, he became the youngest ever member of the Union of Artists of the USSR.
In 1969, he married Katherine Barsacq, daughter of the famous director and director of the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Paris, and great-niece of Léon Bakst, decorator for Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. From then on, the authorities refused her any work.

After five years of incessant lobbying and the personal intervention of French President Georges Pompidou, he managed to leave the USSR for the first time in his life, and forever, in 1974. He settled in Paris, where he could finally realize his work.

"I was born in Paris at the age of 33! ".

It was in Montmartre that our sculptor began to work with precious metals - formally forbidden in his country of origin - using a highly personal technique that he has invented over the years. He forges his own tools as and when he needs them, giving shape to his creations "with a hammer, from a simple sheet of metal".

Goudji is determined that every one of his creations should be unique, unrepeatable and made by his own hands.

Recently, the Musée Masséna in Nice paid tribute to the artist in an exhibition entitled "50 ans de Féerie". A major retrospective will be held at the Mairie du 5e arrondissement in Paris from October 19 to November 26, 2023.