Josef Herman

1911-2000

Born in 1911, Josef Herman grew up in Warsaw, leaving in 1938 for Brussels, where he came under the influence of the Belgian expressionists. In 1940, he arrived in Glasgow, and four years later moved to a Welsh mining village.

His studies of miners and their families developed his technique and his expressionist powers, and made him one of the most discussed artists of the 1950s.

Herman went on to produce a wonderful array of paintings, drawings and prints that constitute a unique personal testament and artistic achievement.

Always interested in the dignity of labour and the depths of the human spirit, Herman expressed himself in simplified shapes and vivid colours. In contrast to his prolific output of drawings, his slow, yet elaborate painting technique gave his work a richness and three-dimensional depth.

Herman's range is broad: still lifes and portraits mingle with working people and the mother and child motif. Seeking the truths of human experience, while expressing his abiding passion for landscape and townscape.