Portrait of Ukrainian Teacher Who Became the First Face of War Heads to Heritage Auctions To Benefit the Ukraine Red Cross

Within hours, Kurilo’s marred face appeared around the world beneath headlines that blared “Putin Invades,” “The Bloodshed Begins,” “Bloody Hell.”

“People were seeing the horrors of war on day one,” Schwan said during a Zoom call from Ukraine this week. “In hours you’re seeing the civilians, the bystanders of this conflict, are the ones suffering the most. In any conflict it’s most important to highlight the suffering of the people who aren’t active participants in it, and that helps inform the world of her suffering and that of the civilians caught in this horror.”

Elena Kurilo before the war in Ukraine

Some 6,400 miles away, in her Los Angeles home, Gershman was among the untold millions who saw Schwan’s portrait of Elena Kurilo. “And it spoke to me.”

The granddaughter of poet and lyricist Mikhail Matusovosky, Gershman was born in Moscow, though her mother’s family came from Ukraine’s Donbas Region, where her grandfather’s museum was founded and his statue stands in the square. Gershman had her first exhibition in St. Petersburg when she was 14, but her parents immigrated to the United States because they “believed that the artist should be able to express themselves freely and without fear,” she said.

Gershman is perhaps best known for having twice been selected by The Recordinfg Academy to create portraits of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, when the men were honored by the MusiCares Foundation. Her works often sell in the six-figure range, and have been featured in galleries and private collections worldwide.

The war began on her birthday, Feb. 24, which Gershman spent in front of the television – “paralyzed by horror,” she said. The next day, she saw Schwan’s photograph of the bandaged, bloodied teacher.

“Through your image, Wolfgang, Elena spoke to me,” the painter told the photographer over Zoom. “All I knew was, I had to paint her. I chose even more of a closeup – even more intimate, straight into her face. She’s close enough in age to me that I can imagine this could be me; she’s also a teacher, and I’m a teacher. I didn’t see a woman. I saw this battlefield on her face.”

Filmmaker Adrian Roup, a friend of Gershman’s in Los Angeles, encouraged her to share the 12 inch-by-14 inch painting with Schwan through his Instagram account. Fortuitiously, Schwan, who is still working in Ukraine, opened Gershman’s message – one among the thousands he has received since his photograph of Kurilo was initially published.

Roup also connected the painter with Heritage, the Dallas-based auction house. Within hours, Gershman and Schwan agreed to auction her painting and his photograph to benefit the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, which is providing desperately needed humanitarian aid.

“Zhenya’s interpretation of this iconic image forces us to focus on the human toll of war, its immutable impact on humanity,” says Joshua Benesh, Chief Strategy Officer at Heritage Auctions. “It is not a charitable effort that risks glamorizing the act of charity or somehow further attenuating us from the reason for humanitarian relief efforts, but rather one that confronts the fundamental truth that we need to have this conversation because the people of Ukraine are suffering.”

“I believe in the power of art,” Gershman said. “I believe a simple act of painting the truth can change the world. I am a total idealist. And I knew something good would come out of it.”