Born
in Warsaw, Poland, Herman studied at Warsaw School of Art for eighteen months
from 1930, and then worked as a freelance graphic artist. In 1932 he held
his first solo exhibition at a Warsaw dealer's gallery, Koterba, showing watercolours
of scenes of the life of working people. 1935-36 founded, with the Polish
painter, Zigmunt Bobowsky, a group of artists called The Phrygian Cap, who
drew their subjects from working people. From a Jewish family, he was forced
to move in 1938-39 to Brussels, and after the German invasion of Belgium in
1940 travelled to France and Britain, settling in Glasgow for four years.
There he renewed his friendship with the painter Jankel Adler. In 1943 he
moved to London and then to the mining village of Ystradgynlais in South Wales.
The following year he set up a studio there in the Peny Bont Inn, living in
the village for eleven years. In 1946 the London dealers Roland, Browse &
Delbanco held the first of many exhibitions of his work and in 1951 he was
commissioned by the Festival of Britain organisers to execute a painting of
Miners for the Pavilion of Minerals, on the South Bank. A member of
the London Group he held his first retrospective exhibition (shared with L.S.
Lowry), at Wakefield Art Gallery. This was followed by another two years later
at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. In 1975 a third retrospective exhibition
was held at Glasgow City Art Gallery. A noted authority and collector of African
Tribal Art, a second biography was released in 1996 written by his wife Nini
Herman.
