The Department of Early Georgian Art studies pre-Christian, early Christian, fully developed medieval, and late feudal Georgian architecture and art, covering both ecclesiastical and secular works. Its research encompasses wall painting, iconography, manuscript illumination, metalwork, stone sculpture, enamel, ceramics, and embroidery. Work is carried out both through monographic studies of individual monuments and through analyses of artistic styles, iconography, techniques, historical and social contexts, and other aspects across epochs and regions. Department members actively collaborate with specialists from related disciplines, including international colleagues.

The Department of Contemporary Georgian Art studies 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century Georgian architecture and art, encompassing both ecclesiastical and secular works. Its research includes issues of urban development, painting, manuscript illumination, sculpture, small-scale plastic arts, ceramics, and graphics. Work is conducted both through the study of individual artists’ oeuvres and through analyses of epochal, regional, disciplinary, stylistic, iconological, historical-social, and other aspects.