Meer Akselrod

Meer Moiseevich Akselrod, also Meyer Axelrod (1902–1970) (Russified form of the first name Mark) was a Belarusian painter best known for his watercolor paintings of Jewish life in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

Life

Akselrod was born in Maladzyechna, Russian Empire. As a child, he survived a pogrom and moved to Russia during World War I. At the outbreak of World War I, the family moved to Tambov 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, but the city had already become Polish, as a result the family settled in Minsk, 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. At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem 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.