Zhenya Gershman

American painter

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Zhenya Gershman in her studio, 2014

Zhenya Gershman is an American painter and portraitist. She is known for her "dramatic monumental portraits of iconic public and private figures"[1][2] and interest in art history.[3]

## Early life

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Her grandfather Mikhail Matusovsky was an award-winning Ukrainian-born poet and lyricist who authored the lyrics to the song "Moscow Nights". Gershman held her first solo painting exhibition at the age of 14 in Saint Petersburg.[4] She received her BFA from Otis Art Institute with honors and MFA from Art Center College of Design. Gershman's early mentor was Soviet artist and illustrator Orest Vereisky[5] and she later studied under the guidance of American artist Lita Albuquerque.

## Artist

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Lift, 2017, oil on canvas, 130 x 98 in. Graven, 2017, oil on canvas, 84 x 30 in.

Gershman's portraits are featured in public and private collections including Douglas Simon, Richard Weisman (she is included in the book "Picasso to Pop: The Richard Weisman Collection"[6]) and the J. Paul Getty Research Institute.[7] Gershman's portrait of Sting is part of the permanent collection of the Arte Al Limite Museum, due to open in 2017 in Santiago, Chile.[8] The GRAMMY MusiCares selected Gershman to create portraits of Bruce Springsteen[9] and Bob Dylan.[10] A documentary film, The Model's Artist, highlights Gershman's innovative approach to working with artists' models.[11][12] In 2000, Gershman was a recipient of ALEX Award in Visual Arts from The National Alliance for Excellence, Honored Scholars and Artists Program, presented by Peter Frank,[1] who is quoted as saying that[13]

> Gershman’s effort evokes not only Whistler’s and Sargent’s, but that from which they took inspiration, Manet’s and Velazquez’s–masters of the figure who in their own ways avoided the banal literalities of their contemporaries for a rendition truer to the vagaries of vision, and (thereby) to the dynamics of human presence.

In 2021 Gershman was named an Ambassador to art materials company Royal Talens North America and art supply business BLICK Art Materials.[14] Gershman's "First Face of War: Intimate Portrait of Ukrainian Teacher" sold for $100,000 at the Heritage Auctions with 100% of proceeds from the sale benefiting Ukraine during the 2022 humanitarian crisis.[15] Gershman's painting depicts Ukrainian school teacher Olena Kurilo, who was wounded by shelling in Chuhuiv during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The painting was modeled from a photograph of a wounded Kurilo which was taken by photojournalist Wolfgang Schwan, and inspired the creation of a movement by Zhenya, called Brushes Over Bullets.[16] In her project 'Brushes over Bullets', Gershman encourages other artists to paint in solidarity with Ukraine.[17] Gershman has said that she intentionally made her "First Face of War" small in size, so that observers are forced to take a closer and more intimate look into the eyes and faces of her subjects.[18]

## Other

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In addition to her artistic career, Gershman is an independent scholar and a museum educator.[19] Gershman's identification of a figure in Rembrandt's painting Danaë as a possible self-portrait[20] was discussed in Le Monde.[3] She is a founder and host of the Invisible Museum Tours video series.[21]

## References

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1. ^ a b Building Bridges Art Exchange: Zhenya Gershman “Larger Than Life”. Fabrik. Feb 9, 2015. [1]
2. ^ Zhenya Gershman Larger Than Life, Jewish Journal, 2015
3. ^ a b Bellet H. "L'invisible Rembrandt". Le Monde. February 2, 2012
4. ^ Mutkin, Vitaly (3 July 2013). "Родившиеся в Москве приложения художника Жени Гершмана новая работа в Калифорнии". News2World. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
5. ^ Zhenya Gershman. The Art Career Project
6. ^ Picasso to Pop: The Richard Weisman Collection ISBN 9781883792602
7. ^ http://archives2.getty.edu:8082/xtf/view?docId=ead/2008.M.61/2008.M.61.xml;chunk.id=dsc_1;brand=default;query=zhenya gershman
8. ^ Colección AAL. Arte al Limite Limitada
9. ^ Zhenya Gershman to Reveal Springsteen Portrait at MusiCares 2013 - See more at: http://www.campuscircle.com/review.cfm?r=17001#sthash.fOquUiyc.dpuf. Campus Circle. Feb 1, 2013. [2]
10. ^ Neale A. Bob Dylan Named 2015 MusiCares Person Of The Year. Monsters and Critics. 21st October 2014. [3]
11. ^ The Model's Artist (2015). IMDb.com, Inc
12. ^ Miller CE, Miller TG. Zhenya Gershman: Unveling the Artist's Muse. World News. 27 April 2015. [4]
13. ^ Zhenya Gershman: Larger Than Life. ArtweekLA
14. ^ "Zhenya Gershman Projects | BLICK Art Materials".
15. ^ "First Face of War by Zhenya Gershman Sells for $100K to Benefit Ukraine". April 2022.
16. ^ Sabitova, Ansariya (2022-04-12). "Portrait of Wounded Ukrainian Woman Launches a Movement". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 2022-04-16.
17. ^ "brushes over bullets". Zhenya Gershman. Retrieved 2022-04-16.
18. ^ "First Face of War by Zhenya Gershman Sells for $100K to Benefit Ukraine". Artists Network. 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2022-04-16.
19. ^ Zhenya Gershman, education specialist at the J. Paul Getty Museum, discusses how Peter Paul Rubens used drapery. The Getty. 2010. [5]
20. ^ Gershman Z. Rembrandt: The “I” Witness Arion, A Journal of Humanities and the Classics. Boston University. [6]
21. ^ "Invisible Museum Tours". 20 September 2020.

## External links

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* A Palette as Deep as Memory, Arte Al Limite, May–June issue #72, 2015.
* Zhenya Gershman: Unveling the Artit's Muse, Huffington Post, 2015.
* International Artist Zhenya Gershman Exhibits "Larger Than Life" Celebrity Portraits, 1WMNTV, 2015.
* Joe Manganiello presents Zhenya Gershman Portrait as Valentine’s Gift to Sofia Vergara, EXTRA TV, 2015.
* Joe Manganiello, Micky Dolenz, More Attend Larger Than Life Art Opening, Monsters and Critics, 2015.
* Rembrandt: Turn of the Key, Arion, 2014.
* Zhenya Gershman From Russia With Grotesquerie, Zocalo Public Square, 2012.