Gershov Solomon Moiseevich (September 23, 1906, Dvinsk, Vitebsk province - June 14, 1989, Leningrad) - painter, graphic artist. From the artisan family. He studied in Vitebsk - at the 1st Higher Art School - of the State Free Art Workshops (1919–1921) under Yu. M. Pen, M.Z. Shagal, and K. S. Malevich; in Petrograd (Leningrad) at the Art and Pedagogical College (1921–1924, formerly the Drawing School of the Society for the Promotion of Arts) by A. R. Eberling; in Vkhutein (1924–1928) by A. A. Rylov, in the workshop of P. N. Filonov. Member of the collective «Masters of Analytical Art» P. N. Filonova (1927–1928); participated in the painting of the auditorium of the Leningrad House of Printing.
He lived in Leningrad (until 1931, then from 1957) and Moscow (1934–1941). He performed illustrations for children's books: «The Living Loss» by E. S. Papernoy (1931), «Special Day» by E. L. Schwartz and G. S. Dietrich (1931). Collaborated in the satirical magazines Chizh and Hedgehog. In 1930-1931 he went on creative missions in the Urals and in Magnitogorsk.
At the end of 1931 he was arrested on charges of «defaming the artists of the revolution» and sentenced to 3 years of exile. He served a link in Kursk and Borisoglebsk; met poets D. Harms, A. I. Vvedensky. Together with the artist B. M. Erbstein, he was involved in the design of the museum of local lore and the theater of musical comedy in Borisoglebsk. In 1934 he was released at the request of I. I. Brodsky, and soon moved to Moscow. He traveled on creative business trips to the Donbass, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Odessa, Alma-Ata.
Author of thematic paintings, portraits, landscapes, still lifes: «Evening» (1936), «Woman in Red» (1938), «Soviet Constitution» (1939), «Liberation of Western Belarus» (1941, 2nd prize at the exhibition of Moscow artists ), «Portrait of the Hero of the Soviet Union Shmelkov» (1942), «After the Germans left» (1943).
In 1941, he volunteered for the front, was soon commissioned for health reasons. Together with a group of Moscow artists, he was evacuated to Siberia (Novosibirsk, Tomsk). Collaborated in «TASS Windows», in the military newspaper «Star» (since 1943). He made sketches of costumes and sets for productions of the Belarusian Jewish Theater (BelGOSET; during the theater’s evacuation in Novosibirsk and Tomsk): «Bach-Kokhba» based on the play by Sh. Galkin, «Enchanted tailor» based on the play by Sholom Aleichem (both - 1942).
In 1948 he was arrested a second time and sentenced to 15 years in forced labor camps. He worked in the camps of Vorkuta and Inta. In 1956 he was released, settled in Leningrad.
A bright representative of the unofficial art of the 1960s and 80s. He created easel paintings and graphic works: «Exhibition on the Collective Farm» (1961), «Locomotive Engineer N. Gorbachev» (1969), «Warsaw Ghetto» (1969), «In Old Vitebsk» (1971), «To Sholom Aleichem» , «Jewish Dance», «Saturday» (all - 1973), «Vitebsk» (1975), «Napoleon in Vitebsk» (1977), «Morning Prayer» (late 1970s), «Reading the Torah» (1986); series - «The Road of Life» (1950s), «Portraits of theatrical figures of Leningrad» (1960–1962), «I hate fascism» (1961–1962, tempera, gouache, oil), «Portraits of high-rise assemblers» (1963– 1964), «Chagall in Vitebsk» (1974), «Holidays», «Michelangelo», «Rembrandt», «Filonov», «Malevich», «Beethoven», «Mozart» (all - 1960–70s). He was friendly with D. D. Shostakovich, E. P. Garin.
Since 1926 - participant of exhibitions. Member of MOSSH (since 1934). He was exhibited at exhibitions: an exhibition-review of works by young artists (1936), the All-Union Exhibition of Young Artists dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Komsomol (1939), the 6th exhibition of the Moscow Union of Artists (1939), «Young Artists of the RSFSR» (1941), and the 3rd exhibition watercolors of Moscow artists (1957) in Moscow; a traveling exhibition of works by Moscow and Leningrad artists in the cities of the Volga region (1940; Moscow, Gorky, Kazan, Kuibyshev, Saratov, Volgograd, Astrakhan); «Artists of Siberia during the Great Patriotic War» (1942), «Siberia to the Front» (1944), Siberian Interregional Art Exhibition (1947) in Novosibirsk; works of Leningrad artists (1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1970), a portrait (1959) in Leningrad and others. He held solo exhibitions in Leningrad (1926, 1929-1930, 1973, 1987, 1988), London (1965), New York, Washington, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia (1972).
Creativity is represented in a number of museum collections, among them the State Russian Museum, the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, the State Museum of the History of Religion in St. Petersburg, the Vitebsk Art Museum, the Pskov State United Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, the Museum of Creativity and life of the Gulag ”of the international society «Memorial».
