Biography
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. Herman’s 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.

He 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.

As 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. He was awarded an O.B.E. in 1981, and in 1990 was elected a Royal Academician. Herman continued to paint up to his death in 2000 and his work is highly collected and resides in innumerable private and public collections around the world.

Selected Exhibitions
1932 - Warsaw. 1938 - Brussels. 1941-2 - James Connell's Gallery, Glasgow. 1941-2 - Aitken and Dott, Edinburgh. 1943 - Reid and Lefevre (first solo show). 1946 - Pastels and drawings done in Wales, Rowland, Browse and Delbanco (solo). 1949 - Geffrye Museum, London. 1949 - 60 Paintings for '51, Arts Council of Great Britain (by invitation). 1949 - Heffer Art Gallery, Cambridge (solo). 1952 - City Art Gallery, Southampton. 1952 - Exhibition of drawings, Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London. 1953 - Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. 1953 - York City Art Gallery. 1955 - Retrospective, Wakefield City Art Gallery. 1956 - Retrospective, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. 1956 - Exhibition of drawings, Gallery Mott, Geneva. 1956 - Aukland City Art Gallery, New Zealand. 1957 - Recent works, Roland Browse and Delbanco. 1957 - Melbourne National Gallery, Australia. 1957 - Drawings, Galerie B Thommen, Basle. 1958 - Frankfurt Kunstkabinett. 1958 - Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield. 1959 - Bradford City Art Gallery. 1960 - Roland, Browse and Delbanco. 1961 - Dawson Gallery, Dublin. 1963 - Drawings, Helen Seiferheld Gallery, New York. 1963 - Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea. 1963 - Benjamin Gallery, Chicago. 1964 - Dresdnnere Art Galleries, Toronto and Montreal. 1967 - Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Plymouth City Art Gallery; Reading City Art Gallery (drawings form Peter Stuyvesant Collection). 1972 - Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig. 1972 - Retrospective, Glasgow. 1972 - Retrospective, Camden Arts Centre, London. 1972 - Drawings and Watercolours, Waddington Gallery, London. 1972 - Browse and Darby, London. 1981 - Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York. 1982 - Philip Solomon Gallery, Dublin. 1984 - Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London. 1984 - Cyril Gerber Fine Art Gallery, Glasgow. 1984 - Exhibition of West Highland fishermen made during 1943. 1985 - Drawings and paintings from the Allison Collection, Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney. 1985 - Exhibition of drawings and paintings in connection with the Wakefield 100 celebrations. 1988 - Drawings 1944-55, Boundary Gallery, London. 1988 - Recent Works 1984-89 and Homage to the Women of Greenham Common, Angela Flowers Gallery, London. 1988 - Paintings and Drawings, Beaux Arts, Bath. 1990 - Drawings, Boundary Gallery, London. 1991 - Wakefield Art Gallery and Museum. 1991 - Watercolours, Flowers East, London. 1992 - Retrospective Exhibition, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. 1993 - Recent Drawings, Angela Flowers Gallery, London. 1994 - Related Twilights: Fifty Years of Drawing and Painting 1944-94, Boundary Gallery, London. 1995 - Drawings and Watercolours, Flowers East at London Fields, London. 1996 - Retrospective Exhibition, New Grafton Gallery, Barnes. 1998 - New Grafton Gallery, Barnes. 1998 - Boundary Gallery, London. 1998 - The Work is the Life, Flowers East at London Fields, London. 2000 - A Tribute Exhibition, Flowers East at London Fields, London