The Wales Arts Review Shorts are a new series of videos exploring major figures and significant moments in Welsh cultural life. Ranging from John Cale to National Theatre Wales, our aim is to give you an insight into the deep and rich creative people that have shaped our nation. For the full catalogue in the Wales Arts Review Shorts, follow the link here.
Josef Herman (3 January 1911 – 19 February 2000), was a highly regarded Polish-British painter who influenced contemporary art, particularly in the United Kingdom. He was part of a generation of central and eastern European Jewish refugee artists who emigrated to escape Nazi persecution. He saw himself as part of a tradition of European figurative artists who painted working people, a tradition that included Courbet, Millet and Van Gogh, Kathe Kollwitz and the Flemish Expressionist Constant Permeke. For eleven years he lived in Ystradgynlais, a mining community in South Wales.
Novelist and critic Gary Raymond discusses Herman’s legacy on Welsh art.
Wales Arts Review would like to thank the Arts Council of Wales for their invaluable support and without whose help this project would not have been possible.
