(Reuters) – Zurab Tsereteli, a Russian-Georgian sculptor, painter and architect recognized for his large-scale and generally divisive works, has died aged 91, Russian state information company TASS reported on Tuesday.
Rising to prominence within the Soviet Union within the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies, Tsereteli turned recognized for his monumental initiatives, and later for his closeness to elements of the Russian political elite.
In 2004, he advised Reuters that Vladimir Putin’s “wholesome soul” had impressed him to do a bronze research of the Russian president.
A friendship with former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov noticed him commissioned to provide an infinite monument to Tsar Peter the Nice that stands in central Moscow. He additionally took a key position within the reconstruction of the town’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which had been destroyed beneath Stalin in 1931.
In a publish on the Telegram messenger app, Russian International Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova referred to as Tsereteli “an artist of world renown, a public determine who knew no boundaries or obstacles in strengthening peace and supporting creativity”.
Different Tsereteli works embrace monuments to the invention of the Americas in Seville, Spain, and in Puerto Rico, and the large Chronicle of Georgia monument in his hometown of Tbilisi.
One in every of his sculptures, the ten-storey Tear of Grief, was introduced to the U.S. by the Russian authorities as a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 assaults. It stands in New Jersey.
(Reporting by Felix Gentle; Modifying by Peter Graff)
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