Review feature: Exhibition | In Praise of Humanity | Josef Herman | Boundary Gallery | Warsaw | Miner | Phrygyan Bonnet | British Coal | Socialist

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The Review - FEATURE - EXHIBITION
Published: 28 May 2009

In the Pit (Detail)

‘Everyday’ humanity on canvas

IF he had not been poisoned by the huge amounts of lead he handled as an apprentice printer, it is likely Josef Herman would not have found his true calling in life.
Born in Warsaw in 1911, the artist left school aged 12 to join a print factory. But setting metal blocks of typeface hit the frail boys health and, because of a nasty bout of lead poisoning, had to quit his apprenticeship.
Instead he turned to design, producing book covers and posters and this led on to him developing a talent that this new retrospective of his work at Swiss Cottage’s Boundary Gallery celebrates.
Herman was politically active and it showed through his works: he found themes within the daily lives of the Polish working classes, helping found the left-wing art movement called the Phrygyan Bonnet – a group who wanted to capture and celebrate “everyday people” hard at work.
His political activism meant he was soon forced into hiding and he fled to Belgium in 1938. A lift across the Channel was provided in 1940 by the Polish Air Force and Herman settled in Glasgow.
After learning his family had been murdered in the Holocaust, he created a visual diary of childhood, which toured Britain.
He was inspired by a trip to South Wales to start studying British coal miners and was commissioned to create a mural called Miners for the Pavilion of Minerals.
His work capturing the daily lives of people in Britain continued throughout his career, and feature in this extensive study of Josef Herman’s life and work
DAN CARRIER

• In Praise of Humanity, a tribute to Josef Herman, is at the Boundary Gallery, Boundary Road, NW8, 29 May to 4 July.
020 7681 7663.

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The Lenkiewicz exhibition is stunning from the remarkable St Eustace sculpture to the drawings featuring unicorns, tigers and Elvis! The skeletons and skulls were my particular favourite along with the octopus drowning the Titanic. The surroundings are fabulous; the Pite architecture lends itself so well to the mood. I admit I have a particular fondness for
the building having worked there for 26 years.
J. Trend-Hill

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