Josef Herman was one of the many Jewish artists who found refuge in Britain during the 1930s and 1940s. He spent eleven years in Ystradgynlais in the south Wales valleys, a period that was central to his artistic career.
Born and brought up in Warsaw, Herman first trained as a typesetter and graphic designer before turning to drawing and painting. From the beginning, his style was strong and bold, and he was drawn to ordinary people and workers, whether in the city’s ghettos, agricultural fields or – later on – in coal mines.
In 1938, with antisemitism on the rise, Herman – aged 27 – left Poland. He went to Brussels before moving to France then Britain in 1940, first settling in Glasgow and later moving to London. In 1942, he received news that his entire family had died in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Herman’s relationship with Wales began in 1944 when a two-week trip ended up lasting until 1955. He settled in the mining village of Ystradgynlais where ¬– after six restless years –the close-knit community brought him both solace and artistic inspiration. Locals knew him as ‘Joe Bach’ (Little Joe). Fascinated by the miners, he depicted them as solid figures that embody strength and dignity, with square shoulders and shovel-like hands. When commissioned to paint a mural for the Festival of Britain in 1951 (now at the Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea), he chose as his subject six monumental coal miners.
Herman left Wales in 1955 for drier climates (for the sake of his health), first moving to Spain and then Suffolk before returning to London, where he continued to work up until his death in 2000.
Mari Griffith is an art historian who has worked in the field of museums and galleries for 30 years, developing and overseeing learning and interpretation provision for public art collections and exhibitions, including at the National Gallery, National Gallery of Art and Royal Academy of Arts. Following a period working internationally on art and heritage interpretation, she is now a freelance writer, editor and translator – focusing mostly on art.
HERMAN, Josef, Mother and Child © Josef Herman Foundation / National Library of Wales