Reuters
Tseleteri was known for his realised sculptures, including one of Russian President Vladimir Putin
Zurab Tsereteli, a Georgian Russian artist known for his huge and often controversial monuments, passed away at the age of 91.
The Tbilisi-born sculptor, painter and architect split his views from a series of large-scale projects in Moscow.
With fame during the Soviet era, Tseleteri led a team of designers at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and later built large-scale sculptures in cities around the world.
He was also known for his closeness with the Russian political elite. He once said that Vladimir Putin’s “healthy soul” had urged the Russian president to study bronze.
Tseleteri was a close friend of Moscow’s mayor Yuri Ruzkov, and his position as part of the upper crust of the Soviet Union allowed him to travel abroad where he met Pablo Picasso in Paris.
Maria Zakhalova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Tseleteri was “a world honor artist and a public figure who had no idea about the boundaries and obstacles in strengthening peace and supporting creativity in social media posts after his death.”
“He will live not only in our hearts, but in his work,” she added.
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Peter the Great Moscow Tower
Beyond Peter, the future of the Great Monument in 2010, several Moscow residents told the BBC they hated sculptures.
Despite the occasional chilly reception, the receptions his work received were widely respected throughout the art world and served as president of the Russian Academy of Arts.
His enormous structures can be found in cities around the world, including the Christopher Columbus memorial in Seville, Spain, and the Georgia Monument in his hometown of Tbilisi.
It also includes a 10-storey grief memorial to commemorate the victims of the September 11, 2001 attack in New Jersey. It was presented to the US by the Russian government.
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The tearful monument was dedicated at the ceremony on September 11, 2006, attended by Czeleteri and former US President Bill Clinton
Another sculpture defeats evil and sits at the UN headquarters in New York. It depicts St. George killing a dragon in broken pieces of us and the Soviet missile.
The work, according to the UN website, represents “a breakdown of nuclear war through a historic treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States.”
In 2006, Czeleteri sparked controversy in a small French town, which built his huge 8.75m (29 feet) bronze statue of Pope John Paul II. Opponents said the statue violated French secular law.
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Defeating evil at UN Headquarters and commemorating the signing of the 1987 Nuclear War Treaty
At 110m (360 feet), the giant monument of Tsereteli to the birth of the New World, the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, is one of the highest sculptures on the planet. It was eventually built in Puerto Rico after several US cities refused it.
He also conducted small bronze studies of key figures, including Princess Diana and Putin.
Tsereteli was a painter, particularly a flower painter, and an architect who played an important role in reconstructing the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
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Czeleteri’s small work includes a memorial depicting alliance leaders Winston Churchill, Franklin de Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the 1945 Yalta Conference.
