Flying Painter by Petre Otskheli Enamel Pin | Georgian Art Souvenir
"Flying Painter" was created by Georgian stage and costume designer Petre Otskheli as the central character design for director Leo Esakia's 1937 film of the same name - a soaring, cape-clad painter that stands among the earliest superhero-like figures in Georgian visual art. Otskheli was one of Georgia's most brilliant designers of the era, working across theatre and film in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, and Moscow, and his sketches were posthumously awarded a gold medal at a 1939 theatre exhibition in London.
He never saw that recognition. In 1937, at just 30 years old, Otskheli was falsely accused of counter-revolutionary activity and executed during the Soviet purges. Decades later, "Flying Painter" was rediscovered and brought out of the museum and onto the streets of Tbilisi as large-scale public art - today one of the city's most beloved and photographed images, a quiet tribute to a talent taken far too soon.
This enamel pin brings that image to life in miniature, carrying a piece of Georgia's art history with you.
