Woking, The Lightbox, The Ingram Collection: Dreams and Nightmares, 22 May – 15 July 2012;
Sheffield, Museums Sheffield, Darkness into Light, 20 October 2018 – 13 January 2019;
Hull, Ferens Art Gallery, Reflection: British Art in an Age of Change, 17 August 2019 – 5 January 2020
Josef Herman’s monumental, sculptural figures are painted in sombre tones, emphasising the world weary nature of their journey. His subjects are almost always working people, miners and field labourers; they are however at the same time strong and stoic, almost at one with the landscape. Born in Warsaw, the son of a Jewish cobbler, Herman left Poland and settled in the Welsh mining village of Ystradgynlais in 1944.
