Ivan Petrovych Kavaleridze (Ukrainian Іван Петрович Кавалерідзе; – 3 December 1978) was a Ukrainian - Soviet sculptor, filmmaker, film director, playwright and screenwriter.

Life

Kavaleridze was born in Ladanskyi (now Novopetrivka,

Romny Raion Romny Raion () is a raion in Sumy Oblast in Central Ukraine. The administrative center of the raion is the town of Romny. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Sumy Oblast was redu ...

Sumy Oblast Sumy Oblast (), also known as Sumshchyna (), is an oblast (province) in northeast Ukraine. The oblast was created in its modern-day form, from the merging of raions from Kharkiv Oblast, Chernihiv Oblast, and Poltava Oblast in 1939 by the Presid ...

, Ukraine). He descended from a Georgian family transplanted by a Russian general into Ukraine in the middle of the 19th century. From 1907 to 1909, Kavaleridze studied at the Kyiv Art School; from 1909 to 1910, he was an art student at the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov, the founder of the Imperial Moscow University, under the name ''Academy of th ...

; from 1910 to 1911, he studied with Naum Aronson, in Paris. By 1910, he was noted for running his own amateur theater company in

Romny Romny (, ) is a city in Sumy Oblast, northern Ukraine. It is located on the Romen River. Romny serves as the administrative centre of Romny Raion and hosts the administration of , one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: History The city w ...

. Kavaleridze also sculpted a marble monument to Rus saints in 1911 at Volodymyr Street. It was restored in 1996 after it was taken down by the Communists in 1934. In 1918 to 1920, he created monuments to

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...

and

Gregory Skovoroda Hryhorii Skovoroda, also Gregory Skovoroda or Grigory Skovoroda (; , ; , ; 3 December 1722 – 9 November 1794), was a philosopher of Ukrainian Cossack origin who lived and worked in the Russian Empire. He was a poet, a teacher and a composer ...

. Shevchenko's statue, which was erected opposite

Kyiv University The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

, became a location for nationalist demonstrations during the 1960s and 1980s. From 1928 to 1933, he worked as an artist, writer and director in the

Odessa film studio Odesa Film Studio (, ) was a Ukrainian, formerly Soviet, film studio in Odesa. Founded in 1919, it was one of the first studios in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. It is partially owned by the government and supervised by the State Pro ...

, and from 1934 and 1941 in Kyiv Film Factory. In 1936, Kawaleridze released the screen adaptation of

Mykola Lysenko Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko (; 22 March 1842 – 6 November 1912) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist of the late Romantic period. In his time he was the central figure of Ukrainian music, with an ''oeuvre'' tha ...

's ''

Natalka Poltavka ''Natalka Poltavka'' () is a Ukrainian play written by Ivan Kotliarevsky. The Opera in 2 acts, ''Natalka Poltavka'', was the last scheduled performance by The Kyiv Opera Company at the National Opera House of Ukraine named after Taras Shevch ...

''. It was the first film-opera in the Soviet cinema. From 1957 to 1962, he was a director at the Dovzhenko film studio. He is buried at the

Baikove Cemetery Baikove Cemetery () is a historic cemetery memorial in Holosiivskyi District of Kyiv, Ukraine. It is a National Historic Monument of Ukraine and is known as a necropolis of distinguished people. History The cemetery was established in 1833 a ...

References

1887 births 1978 deaths People from Sumy Oblast Ukrainian male sculptors Ukrainian film directors Ukrainian people of Georgian descent Soviet sculptors Ukrainian avant-garde Burials at Baikove Cemetery {{Ukraine-film-director-stub