Moshe Gershuni

Moshe Gershuni was born in 1936 in Tel Aviv

Gershuni was born in Tel Aviv in 1936 to Yona and Zvi Kutner, immigrants from Poland. His father, an agronomist and farmer, changed the family name to Gershuni after his own father. Some of his mother's relatives were murdered in the Holocaust, and the Holocaust was a strong presence in his childhood.

He attended the religious Bilu School and then a religious high school. In 1952 the family moved to Herzliya, near its orchards. His army induction was postponed, and after his father died in a car accident in 1955 he took over the orchard work.

From 1960 to 1964 he studied sculpture in evening classes at the Avni Institute, with teachers Dov Feigin and Moshe Sternschuss. In 1964 he married Bianca Eshel, and the couple moved to Ra'anana. Their sons Aram and Uri were born in 1967 and 1970.

His work began with abstract sculpture influenced by pop art, and his first solo show opened at the Israel Museum in 1969. In the 1970s he made works shaped by conceptual art. His paintings of the 1980s addressed Holocaust memory and criticized Israeli society and Zionist nationalism.

He divorced in 1988 and later came out as gay. He was named winner of the Israel Prize for Painting for 2003 but did not receive it. He died in 2017.