{{Short description|Turkish artist (1899–1974)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}} '''Fernando Gerassi''' (October 5, 1899 – 1974) was a Sephardic Jew born in Turkey. He was an accomplished artist who exhibited alongside Picasso before volunteering to fight in the Spanish Civil War.<ref name = Navarro> {{cite web | url = https://www.clublibertaddigital.com/ilustracion-liberal/9/fernando-gerassi-1899-1974-javier-rubio-navarro.html | title = Fernando Gerassi (1899-1974) | number = 9 | last = Navarro | first = Javier Rubio | date =Spring 2017 | website = La Ilustración Liberal | publisher = Libertad Digital | access-date = February 20, 2018 | quote = }}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1922 Gerassi met Stephania Avdykovych, a Ukrainian, in Berlin and they were married in 1929.<ref name="bio"/> In 1931, their son, John "Tito" Gerassi, was born in Paris.<ref name="bio"/>
Gerassi and his family moved to the United States at the start of World War II and he was hired by Carmelita Hinton, a progressive educator who was the founder and director of the Putney School in Vermont, to teach art at the school.<ref name="time">{{cite magazine |date=March 28, 1955|title= Art: Success through failure |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937184,00.html |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215041910/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937184,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 15, 2008}}</ref> Hinton also employed Gerassi's wife, Stepha, to teach "anything she wanted" and she would go on to teach a number of subjects during their years at the school, including French, Spanish, Russian, German, ancient history, Latin, and European history.<ref name="bio"/> In 1955 ''Time'' magazine reported that to support his family while establishing his art career, he tried "some 40 different jobs".<ref name="time"/> From 1944 to 1964 Gerassi was harassed by the CIA who tried to blackmail him by threatening to deport his family if he would not agree to work for them.<ref name="bio"/> One of his friends eventually reported the harassment to Abe Fortas, then an aide to Lyndon Johnson. Fortas obtained the CIA file and passed it onto the United States Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, who immediately gave Gerassi and his family American citizenship and apologized "in the name of America".<ref name="bio">{{cite web|url=http://www.fernandogerassi.com/|title=Fernando Gerassi - His Art and Life|work=fernandogerassi.com|accessdate=March 7, 2010}}</ref>
==Art career== Gerassi's early work was influenced by Stanislas Stueckgold and Paul Cézanne.<ref name = Crimson> {{cite web | url = http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1957/5/25/fernando-gerassi-pas-a-young-man/ | title = Fernando Gerassi – Paul Schuster Gallery | last = Rubin | first = Lowell J. | date = May 25, 1957 | website = The Harvard Crimson | access-date = February 20, 2018 | quote = }}</ref>
In 1951 Gerassi shared an exhibit with American artist, Georgia O'Keeffe,<ref name="bio"/> and then in 1955 he exhibited alone, for the first time in 20 years.<ref name="time"/> His solo exhibition at the Panoras Gallery in Manhattan "elicited rave reviews".<ref name="bio"/>
Gerassi returned to Putney School where he painted until his death in 1974.<ref name="bio"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Official website|http://www.fernandogerassi.com/}} * [http://www.libertaddigital.com/ilustracion_liberal/articulo.php/199 Extensive article on Fernando Gerassi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312042400/http://www.libertaddigital.com/ilustracion_liberal/articulo.php/199 |date=March 12, 2007 }} {{in lang|es}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerassi, Fernando}} Category:1899 births Category:1974 deaths Category:Jewish painters American people of Turkish-Jewish descent Category:Sephardi Jews from the Ottoman Empire Category:Turkish Sephardi Jews Category:People of the Spanish Civil War Category:Jewish anti-fascists Category:Jewish socialists Category:Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Germany