Norman Mailer
October, 1997:

“I understand that Zurab Tsereteli’s gigantic statue of Peter the Great was considered to be in bad taste by half of Moscow’s art world while the other half thinks of it as a mighty achievement. I would say that I belong to the second group. Engels - does one dare to mention his name? – once said, that quantity changes quality, and by such rule of thumb, I would argue that a structure which is taller than a ten-story building can project many vices (of which oppression of the senses could be the first – one need only look at the nearest corporate high-rise) but a statue of such magnitude cannot be judged by any criterion of taste, it is simply too large. No, Zurab’s Peter is a world-sized entertainment. The looking at it for seven consecutive days from my window at the President Hotel has never failed to stimulate my mood, for Zurab’s creation is an marvel of audacity much like Peter himself who would not stand on the bridge of one boat if he could find five to set on top of one another, where in the world is another sculptor who would dare to articulate nets and rigging and sails and flags out of metal strong enough to bear Peter’s mighty stresses, more than that he is part of a sculptured organism more than half high as the Eiffel Tower? And with it all, playful enough to be made of tin?

Yes, if the piece were three feet high and all of it bent to shape or soldered together, one might feel free to speak of bad taste, but this is a mighty work that lives and thrives on its fundamental contradiction – it is playful yet immense. So, it creates its own authority and, thereby, its own aesthetic. I have been looking at it by day and by night from a tenth-story windows across a distance of a quarter mile and the statue brings life to my room as well as the vulgar adventurous spirit of Peter himself looking out on that half of the new Moscow, which lies to the west”.

David Rockfeller
October 29, 2003

Dear Mr. Tsereteli:

It was a great privilege for me during my recent trip to Moscow to have had the opportunity to visit you in your lovely home and to see your studio which has hanging on the walls many of your beautiful paintings. My colleagues and I also appreciate the wonderful Georgian lunch you provided.

Of course, I was especially grateful and totally taken by surprise when the next evening I received a portrait of me which you had painted during the course of the previous twenty-four hours! I thought it was a remarkably good likeness, perhaps better than any other portrait which has been done of me. I am greatly indebted to you for your thoughtfulness and was quite astonished that you could have painted such an excellent portrait from a photograph, combined with our relatively brief meeting the day before. I cannot imagine how you were able to execute such a fine painting in such short order.

In any event I send you my warmest thanks for your hospitality and for your generosity in giving me such a fine painting.

Sincerely, David Rockfeller

Hillary Rodham Clinton
United States Senator
March 10, 2005

I am pleased to have this opportunity to send greetings to each of you attending the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award Dinner. I join my voice with yours in recognizing tonight’s honorees Mark Handelman and Zurab Tsereteli.

… Zurab Tsereteli has made invaluable contributions to the Russian-American Jewish communities, from his notable humanitarian efforts to his outstanding artistic achievements throughout the world. …”

Gina Lollobrigida
January 21, 2003

“I have never met such a wonderfully kind person as Zurab Tsereteli. He is certainly the most remarkable painter and sculptor of world fame. But what is interesting, he uses nearly all, he earns for his projects devoted to the attempts to help to the poor and disabled. He is doing charity work everywhere. And even more does he to establish friendship between the peoples of the world.

His monuments embellish many capitals and cities in different countries: New York and Rome, Paris and Montevideo, Tokyo and Moscow. They speak to people with their forms and they speak about peace and freedom and about our wonderful world, which we have to preserve and may be to make a little more beautiful.

It is hard to find another man except Zurab Tsereteli who made so many charity things by means of art and beauty in order to make peace long lasting and universal. I think he must be rewarded with the highest prizes for peace and charity.

I do support Zurab Tsereteli and wish him full success.”

Federico Mayor
UNESCO Director-General
1996

“If I were asked, how I could define the force of Tsereteli, I would say, that it is the force nature. I have never seen a man of such temperament of permanent tension in relation to art, to realization, to extirpation of barbarism through art. This is, as you are aware, one of the great missions of popularization capable to convince you, that the beauty should fill in all the spaces which in the past were occupied by violence, pages of horror.

Maestro Tsereteli!

There are many reasons to nominate you the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. But there is one reason, that is above all others, above your age, your talent, above Tsereteli-sculptor, Tsereteli-painter and creator. It is that you are in the avant-garde of fighting for the triumph of peace and tolerance against violence for the benefit of every woman and man. Zurab Tsereteli is being designated Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in recognition of his dedication to the Organization’s ideals and objectives”.

Gilles D’Ettore
Mayor of Agde, France
Address at the dedication of the monument To Honore de Balzac
on June 26th, 2004

“This bronze sculpture is Zurab Tsereteli’s artwork and that is why we appreciate it very much. His monumental works are located throughout the world: not only in Moscow; but also in New York on the front grounds of the United Nations Headquarters; in Paris in UNESCO Headquarters; in London; Rome; Seville, Brazil; Syria; Turkey; Japan and in other places…

This bronze sculpture is of special value to us because it was Mr. Tsereteli himself, who preferred Agda having visited many other cities in France. It was him, who expressed his wish to install here, in the center of this round square, his “monument to the French literature of the 19th century”, honoring Honore de Balzac who was born in Turen, and, if they do not know it in France, is a very popular novelist in Russia.

And finally, this sculpture is of big significance to us, as Mr. Tsereteli, designer of this monument, is both a President of the Russian Academy of Arts and a Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Fine Arts. He is not only an artist, but also a philanthropist and humanitarian, who within the UNESCO framework devotes his boundless energy to assist children, in particular, children in need. I think this monument of the Russian artist, a gift to the French people from Russia, is a symbol of the revived friendship, that was sometimes shadowed by ups and downs but has never stopped.

Long live Russia!

Long live France!

Long live friendship between Russia and France!

Yuri Luzhkov
Mayor of Moscow
At the opening of Zurab Tsereteli’s personal exhibition, October, 1998

Many people think, that he is only a sculptor, a man who is striving to create something huge and grandiose, but few people know, that Zurab is a talented designer who presented us with a beautiful underground space on Manezh square and provided his assistance in completing the War Memorial on Poklonnaya Hill that is dear to the heart of every Russian person who struggled in the war against fascism. Today Zurab reveals to us as a gifted painter, a bright, distinctive and extraordinary master of enamels who revived ancient, lost and forgotten secrets of this art. This man wants to embrace by his talent the entire world! He is a man of the world.

Yuri Luzhkov

Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Elijah II
The 2000th anniversary of Christianity
2000

The sources of Zurab Tsereteli’s art go back to the ancient Georgian culture. The synthesis of the national and world art, a special execution of artistic goal define the peculiarity of his original creative manner. He is among the pioneers who revived the technique of the world famous Georgian cloisonne enamel of the 10-12th centuries. He was the first to have used enamel in monumental art. We can also say, that he was the first artist who made a synthesis of fine arts and architecture, initiated the correlation of color and sculpture, as well as unification of monumental and decorative art. I am happy to say that Zurab made his significant contribution to the religious art. He was in charge of the artistic decoration of the recently revived Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. At the same time he himself recreated crosses, doors and other members of the Cathedral.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexis II
The 2000th anniversary of Christianity
2000

The masters of the Russian Academy of Arts headed by its president Zurab Tsereteli have done a great job. It was the Russian Academy of Arts that was commissioned to recreate the artistic decoration of the Cathedral. Moreover, the Cathedral obtained additional spaces that made it a huge complex built in the best traditions of the Russian religious architecture.

David Alfaro Siqueiros
May 3, 1973

“On behalf of myself and on behalf of Mexican artists of monumental art I congratulate Zurab Tsereteli with the artistic merits of his artworks made for the Trade Unions Palace of Culture in Tbilisi and in the resort of Adler. With enormous plastic force and creative fantasy masters Zurab Tsereteli a complicated technique of mural painting. I think, that he has entered boundless spaces of art of the future which combines sculpture and painting. The art of Zurab Tsereteli has transgressed the national bounds and is obtaining an international significance”.

Pablo Picasso
Paris,France
1964

“This young Zurab Tsereteli has a remarkable start. He perfectly feels color, generalizes form. I see in him a great artist in the future.

In his works one can see good traditions borrowed form Pirosmani. And Pirosmani was one of those who helped me when a was a young artist”.

Marc Chagall
Paris,France
1968

“Bravo! Bravo!

Painting for Zurab Tsereteli is a beginnings of all beginnings”.