Painter, Sculptor. Iakob Nikoladze received much acclaim for being a Georgian painter and realistic sculptor of the 20th century. Creating his first sculpture in 1896, he was the first serious professional sculptor in Georgia, breaking the Orthodox mode of flat surfaces. His great talent and professionalism in bronze, stone and marble gave eternal life to Shota Rustaveli, Akaki Tsereteli, Grigol Chakhrukhadze, Fine, I.Beritashvili, Ivane Javakhishvili, Constantine leselidzesa and other worthy patriots. He created the monument for the grave of the poet, Saint Ilia Chavchavadze, who died in 1907. Born into a household of 13 children, his mother became a penniless widow when he was four years old. After being educated at the Stroganov Art School in Moscow in 1892 and in the painting school at Grekov Odessa Art Academy in the Ukraine, he left for Paris. In 1904, to study Michelangelo, he traveled to Florence, Italy for six months before returning to Paris. Starting in 1906 he had the opportunity to work for 15 months in the famous French sculptor Auguste Roden's workshop. Following Roden's idea of "This Kiss," he created two poses of a man and woman kissing and created a series of exquisite sculptures of women. He is called "Georgian Rodin." Besides sculptures, he painted portraits of Lado Alexi Meskhishvili, Akaki, Shota Rustaveli and others for a total of a thousand paintings, yet only about 200 have survived to the 21st century. In 1917 he traveled again to Paris with his colleagues and friends David Kakabadze. and Lado Gudishvilit. During his stays in Western Europe, he was exposed to a host of authors and artists with new art styles. When he left Georgia, his homeland was an independent country, but upon returning, he found his homeland under the Communist Soviet Union, which dictated the limit of creating for artists of clay, pen, or paint. There was no freedom of expression. All art was to praise Communism with a political agenda. Artists were being executed or being sent in exile to Siberia for years for non-conforming. Besides this creative limitation, the Communist Iron Curtain isolated artists from the rest of the world. After returning to Georgia, as one of the founders of the Art Academy, he became a professor starting in 1922 at the Tbilisi Art Academy. He is credited as the founder of Georgian realistic sculpture school. He designed the national flag of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, 1918 to 1921, which became the flag of Georgia again after Georgia's independence from 1991 to 2004. In 1939 he joined the Communist Party. He died very poor in a small apartment in his studio. His remains were cremated. After his death, his studio in his native town of Kutaisiwas was converted to a museum, housing 114 sculptures, sketches, photos and other documentary materials. He met "the love of his life" in Paris, and brought her back to Communist Georgia, but she returned to France. His grandson, Guram Nikoladze, who took his grandfather's surname, is a sculptor and the director of the Iakob Nikoladze House-Museum. Part of his work is kept in Georgian National Museum – Shalva Amiranashvili Fine Art Museum. Starting in November of 2016 through February of 2017, the exhibition "Iakob Nikoladze 140" was held at Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery to commemorate the 140th anniversary of his birth. A street in the capital city of Tbilisi was named in his honor. Among his many honors, he received the Stalin Prize in 1946 and 1948, Medal for Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War 1941 to 1945, the Order of Lenin, and the Order of the Badge of Honor on March 22, 1936