Gerry Shertzer
46 Waltham Street, Studio #106
Gerry Shertzer, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., graduated from the High School of Music and Art and Cooper Union. He won a fellowship to the Yale Graduate School of Art, where he studied with Jose De Rivera, Gilbert Switzer, and Joseph Albers. After receiving his M.F.A. from Yale, he was encouraged by Albers to apply to Phillips Academy Andover in 1957 as a teaching fellow. While at Phillips Academy, he was encouraged by John Kemper and Bart Hayes, to co-create and expand with his fellow art teachers the Art Department and programming that remains innovative and inspirational to this day.
Throughout his career he has garnered much recognition and been awarded many accolades including notably: In 1960 while teaching at both Phillips Academy and working closely with the Addison Gallery of American Art, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to travel, teach and learn throughout South America.
He traveled extensively, visiting cities in 14 countries throughout South America: Caracas, Venezuela; Lima, Peru; Lapaz and Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay; Port of Spain, Trinidad; Port Au Prince, Haiti; Kingston, Jamaica; and Habana, Cuba. Throughout his travels, he met with artists, and lectured and taught at various museums and universities. In 1976 Gerry was among a group of noted teachers and artists receiving a grant to travel as a group throughout the U.S.S.R. in a cultural and arts exchange. They met with artists and teachers while visiting schools, museums and historical sites.
He taught for over four decades in the Art Department at Phillips Academy in Andover, inspiring 1000's of students over the years to "see and create differently". He remained at Andover until his retirement in 1999. Throughout his teaching career he was engaged with making sculpture and large-scale commissions for churches and synagogues. His work is installed in public spaces and in private and museum collections all over the world. Over the past decade and a half, he returned to watercolor painting and continues to create work in his studio in Boston's South End.
Artist Statement
"A good deal of my inspiration comes from just walking and driving around the city. In fact an artist friend of mine gave me the title of, "the drive by painter". A good example of this title is the painting, " Early Departure" based on a very early drive to the airport. Driving through streets at about sunrise I couldn't help but notice all the cars, empty cans, structures, and buildings lining the streets, with not a soul in sight. It reminded me of a huge living room where the children had left out their toys and the little buildings the night before. When I returned and began that painting I didn't want to go back to the sight or use photographs. I didn't want to be held by what was really there. I wanted to be free to rely on my memory and whatever invention occurred as the painting developed."
