Cherkasov, Georgi Fedorovich
Amateur sculptor
Born 1906, Kislovodsk. Finished two forms of a primary school in his native town; in the 1930s he studied for two or three months under well-known sculptor Kh.N. Askar-Sarydja; farm-labourer and stone-cutter. Being arrested in 1925 was sentenced to three years in camp which served in Solovki. In summer he was driven to fell timber in Karelian swamps, in winter loaded square beams on board of British timberships on the Kem River, being under unbearable conditions of work and life. In 1927 was released and given a "minus" (six large cities and his home town were forbidden). He earned his living as a repairer; his off hours were devoted to sculpture: he produced decorative figure of a deer for a health-resort gardens and three-metre high copy of Vera Mukhina's Worker and the Collective-Farm Woman for one of the localities. Was at the services. When pensioned off he concentrated on sculpture, executing small gesso reliefs. The Solovki Sitting is a separate cycle of reliefs in gesso, which the artist began after 1985.