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Josef
Herman O.B.E., R.A. (1911 – 2000)
“Peasant
on a Donkey”
Mixed
Media. Ink, Watercolour, Coloured Chalk
9
¾” x 7 ½” (245mm x 190mm)
Overall
framed size 16 1/8” x 13 ¾” (410mm x 350mm)
Provenance:
Exhibited at the New Grafton Gallery, London on 7.6.2001
Catalogue
number 17. Their label to the reverse. Where purchased by David Witt Esq.
Originally
from the Estate of the late Josef Herman
Also
bears label from the Artist’s wife Nini Herman certifying that it was painted
by her husband IMAGE IMAGE IMAGE
This
picture is unsigned. Herman, when asked by Agi Katz, the then Curator of
the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, said “I never sign my work - they are signed
all over.”
He
did however sign his lithographic editions.
Josef Herman was a painter in oil, ink, watercolour and pastel and produced a number of
lithographs. He was born in Warsaw in 1911 and first became an apprentice
printer and compositor. He then worked as a commercial artist whilst
attending evening classes in art and gained a place at the Warsaw School of Art
and Decoration. His first exhibition was in Warsaw in 1932 of large
expressionistic watercolours of peasants, influenced by Munch. In the
same year he participated in Avant Garde art groups and started writing.
In 1938 he left Poland and went to Belgium where he became friendly with Permeke and also de Smet. In
1940, with the approaching German occupation, he escaped to France and on to Britain, arriving in Glasgow, where he met
Jankel Adler whom he had previously met in Poland. He then became
involved with stage and costume design with the Celtic Ballet. In 1943 he
moved to London where he had a joint exhibition with L.S. Lowry at Reid and
Lefevre and where he was also introduced to Epstein and other Jewish
intellectual circles that organised weekly lectures and whose members were
Koenig, Bloch, Adler, Meidner and Bomberg. In 1944 he visited Ystradgynlais in South Wales on holiday where he decided to
settle. In 1946 he had his first solo
exhibition in London at Roland, Browse and Delbanco, leading to 35 years of
collaboration. He gained British citizenship in 1948, after which he
travelled to France and Italy. He received a commission for the Festival
of Britain to paint a mural for the Pavilion of Minerals, featuring miners, now
in the Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Following this he travelled to Spain,
Portugal and Greece and was invited to join the London Group. He
travelled to Israel where he stayed for several months. In 1955 he left Ystradgynlais and moved to London, later moving to Suffolk
with Dr. Nini Ettlinger, who he married in
1961. In 1962 he was awarded a gold medal for services to Welsh Art by
the Royal National Eisteddfod in Llanelli. From 1965 to 1966 he had an
extended period in Mexico. In 1972 he moved to London. He was
awarded an OBE for his services to British Art in 1981 and became a Royal
Academician in 1990 and in 1992 he received a Silver Medal in Cardiff for his
services to Art. He died in 2000.
Work in Museums and Public Collections
In
Britain
Abbott
Hall Gallery, Kendall; Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland; Arts Council of Great
Britain; Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport; Birmingham City Museums and Art
Gallery; The British Council; The British Museum, London; Cecil Higgins Museum,
Bedford; City Art Gallery, Bristol; The Contemporary Art Society; The Geffrye Museum, London; Glasgow Museums and City Art
Gallery; Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield;
Huddersfield Art Gallery; Kettering Art Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery; Leicestershire
Museums and Art Galleries and Record Service; Manchester City Art Galleries;
Middlesborough Art Gallery; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; National
Portrait Gallery, London; Nottingham Art Gallery; Plymouth City Museum and Art
Gallery; Rugby Art Gallery; Selford Art Gallery;
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Sheffield City Art Gallery;
Southampton Art Gallery; South London Art Gallery; Tate Gallery, London; Ulster
Museum, Belfast; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Wakefield City Art Gallery
and York City Art Gallery.
Work
in Museums and Public Collections
International
The
City Art Gallery, Aukland, New Zealand; Durban Art Gallery, South Africa; the
Ein Harod Museum, near Haifa, Israel; Hamilton Art Gallery, Ontario, Canada;
Israel Art Museum, Jerusalem; Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa; King
George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth, South Africa; Leipzig Museum, Der Bildenden, Kunste, Germany;
Melbourne National Gallery, Australia; Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada;
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane,
Australia; National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Peter Stuyvesant
Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa; Tel Aviv Art Gallery, Israel; Toronto Art
Gallery, Ontario, Canada and Wellington National Gallery, New Zealand.
He
also exhibited Internationally in many mixed exhibitions
Films
on Josef Herman
Josef
Herman 55 Minute Film by Dennis Mitchell, Granada TV (early 1950s); The Artist
Speaks produced by John Read, BBC TV (1960); Josef Herman, Director Anthony
Roland, Anthony Roland Films (1962). A Day Eleven Years Long, 60 minute film by John Ormond, BBC Cardiff (1975); A Brush
with Fate, producer Dick Vigers, BBC Wales and Slade
(1977)
