Popiashvili, David - by Victoria Emily Jones

Stories about Jesus Christ, illustrated by David Popiashvili

by Victoria Emily Jones

The Moscow-based Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) exists to translate, publish, and distribute the Bible in the 130-plus languages of the non-Slavic peoples living in the Commonwealth of Independent States (that is, in former Soviet Union countries).

In 2002 the IBT published a Georgian edition of Stories about Jesus Christ, a children’s book based on the four New Testament Gospels. They commissioned Georgian artist David Popiashvili (b. 1969), who studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, to create thirty-one illustrations for it. People responded so well to Popiashvili’s images that IBT decided to create a digital version of the book that includes Russian and English translations as well as the original Georgian. You can access this edition here.

The Good News about the Birth of Jesus

Jesus Calms a Storm

David Popiashvili’s paintings for Stories have a tighter quality to them than his typical work, to accommodate the audience. Usually his brushwork is loose, and his oil paint thickly applied.

The Flight to Egypt, 1999. Oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm.

Garden of Gethsemane (Christ preaching), 2011, 41 x 52 cm

You can view more of Popiashvili’s paintings on his Facebook page.

First published on http://thejesusquestion.org