Zurab K. Tsereteli, a Georgian-Russian artist whose towering monuments and heroic statues pleased the authorities in the Kremlin but drew scorn from Moscow to New Jersey, died on Tuesday at his home outside Moscow. He was 91.
His death was announced by Sergei Shagulashvili, his assistant. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sent a condolence note to Mr. Tsereteli’s family, calling him “an outstanding representative of multinational Russian culture.”
An admirer of Mr. Putin, Mr. Tsereteli unveiled a towering bronze statue of him in 2004, dressed in a belted judo tunic. (The work was so poorly received, however, that it remained with Mr. Tsereteli at his gallery.)
Mr. Tsereteli’s exuberant work largely defined post-Soviet Russian aesthetics. Flamboyant and vivacious, he was able to charm his way across geopolitical boundaries in earning the position of unofficial court artist in the Kremlin in the 1990s while also working with the government of his native Georgia as it tried to distance itself from Moscow.
In Georgia, where many locals condemned him for staying in Russia, he built the Freedom Monument in Tbilisi, the capital, a depiction of St. George slaying a dragon atop a tall pillar in the main square. It replaced a statue of Vladimir Lenin after the Soviet Union’s collapse.