Meer Moiseevich Akselrod, also Meyer Axelrod (1902–1970) (Russified form of the first name Mark) was a Belarusian

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

best known for his

watercolor painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

s of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

life in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Life

Akselrod was born in

Maladzyechna Maladzyechna, or Molodechno, is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Maladzyechna District (and formerly of Molodechno Region from 1944 to 1960). Maladzyechna is located northwest of Minsk. In 2006, it had ...

. As a child, he survived a

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

and moved to Russia during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. At the outbreak of World War I, the family moved to

Tambov Tambov ( , ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Central Federal District, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna River (Moksha basin), Tsna ...

after the Tsarist government evicted the Jewish population from the front line, where he attended an evening class at the drawing school of Perelman (1892-1967) in 1916-1917. In 1919 the family attempted to return to

Molodechno Maladzyechna, or Molodechno, is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Maladzyechna District (and formerly of Molodechno Region from 1944 to 1960). Maladzyechna is located northwest of Minsk. In 2006, it had an ...

, but the city had already become Polish, as a result the family settled in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

, where Akselrod earned a living as an advertising poster maker for cinemas and graduated from school. In the 1920s, he studied and then taught at the VKhUTEMAS School of Art. He was one of the members of the art association ‘ The Four Arts’, which existed in Moscow and Leningrad in 1924-1931. In 1932 joined the Moscow Union of Artists. Amongst other things his work focused on Jewish life in the

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

. At the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

a work of his depicts a vibrant Shtetl market with a mix of residential homes, synagogues, and churches in a flat style, featuring various characters engaged in daily activities. The artist also portrayed figures such as a woman leans against a sack while a vendor weighs goods nearby, and a violinist stands next to two kneeling women, one holding a child. In 1941, the Akselrod family was evacuated to Tambov, where it had been during the First World War. Meer Akselrod himself remained in Moscow, trying to find out about the fate of his arrested brother, the poet Zelik Akselrod, and waiting to be drafted into the army. Soon after mobilisation he was recalled by

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

to work in the film crew of the film ‘Ivan the Terrible’ in

Alma-Ata Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains in southern Kazakhstan, near the border wi ...

, on his way there he took his family from Tambov. He was in evacuation in Alma-Ata in 1941-1943, where he supported Jewish refugees from Poland. In 1944 in Alma-Ata, Akselrod's personal exhibition was held. After the war he participated in a group exhibition in Moscow on Kuznetsky Most in 1966, where about 250 paintings were exhibited. After the exhibition he was immediately hospitalised because of his heart. In 1968 he had a personal exhibition in (

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

). Akselrod died of an unrecognised heart attack in 1970, having never seen the catalogue of the solo exhibition out of print. The artist is buried in the old, Jewish part of the Vostryakovsky cemetery. His work was barely known outside the former Soviet Union until his daughter, Elena Akselrod, published her father's biography and a representative collection of his works in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in 1993.

References

* Georgy Fedorov. ''Meer Akselrod'', Moscow, Sovetskij khudozhnik, 1982, 134p.

External links

A web gallery of Akselrod's paintings
1902 births 1970 deaths People from Maladzyechna People from Vileysky Uyezd Belarusian Jews Belarusian male artists Jewish painters Vkhutemas alumni Academic staff of Vkhutemas 20th-century Belarusian painters Belarusian male painters 20th-century Belarusian male artists Soviet painters {{Belarus-painter-stub