Picture by Josef Herman (c1938) 'Sketch of ‘Scrubbing the Floor’. TATE.
Notes for an Adult / Teacher
The themes in this project deal with loss, death and remembering family who had died in the Warsaw Ghetto. Herman produced some lovely drawings whilst remembering his lost family. This is an artist led project designed for young children but they would need support in undertaking some aspects of the themes.
If you want the Welsh version of this project please click on this link. Y fersiwn Cymraeg yma.
Introduction to project
Remember this project can be completed over a number of sessions. Take your time to learn about the artist Josef Herman.
Who was Josef Herman?
In this short project you will look at the art that the artist Josef Herman made when he lived in Glasgow Scotland, between 1940 and 1943.
Josef Herman was born in 1911 in Poland, to a Jewish Family. He left Warsaw, Poland in 1938 and arrived in Scotland in 1940. He lived in Wales for 11 years from 1944.
What will you be doing?
You will be:
- Making Marks
- Sketching
- Looking at short films about Josef Herman
- Looking at Herman's drawings of memory
- Making your own drawings of objects
In the first task you will be exploring Mark Making.
Keep all the drawings that you make until the end of the project.
Project Picture (2020) Mark making
Mark Making
Looking at Herman's work and making your own marks.
- Get a pencil
- Get some paper this could be A4 or lots of different small pieces
- Make lots of different marks on different surfaces
- Using different angles to make different marks
- If you are having fun fill more surfaces
- DON’T use an eraser as this takes time away from your sketching
It's important that an artist experiments before making work.
In the next task you will be looking at Herman's work and sketching.
Picture by Herman (c.1938) Sketch of ‘Scrubbing the Floor’. TATE
Sketching
Look at the marks in Herman's sketch ‘Scrubbing the Floor’.
Look and sketch these close-ups taken from Herman's sketch of ‘Scrubbing the Floor’.
- Sketch and try to make marks like Herman has in these examples
- Draw quickly and slowly
- Make as many sketches as you want
- Enjoy
Josef Herman used a lot of different marks in his work.
Theme: Memory
We will now look at how Josef Herman drew his memories. After he left Poland he made drawings called Memory of Memories (1940-43) you will learn about these in this film. Some parts of this film tell a sad story.
Now let's do some drawing by looking at close-up details of Herman's drawings.
Picture by Herman (1940-43) ‘My grandmother telling a story on a Friday evening’ (1940-43) from Glasgow Drawings, Memory of Memories the Eye Centre Glasgow (1985)
Drawing
Looking at Herman's objects
- Look at the close-ups details of Herman's drawings
- Look at the lovely marks he drew
- Copy each close-up detail
Remember what Herman said about his memory drawings. "I couldn't touch them but I could follow them with a line."
Picture by Herman (1940-43) 'I Dream about my sister' from Glasgow Drawings, Memory of Memories the Eye Centre Glasgow (1985)
Drawing your Objects
Find 3 objects to draw. Here are some examples for you.
- A hair brush
- The light on the ceiling
- A chair
- A table
- A cup
- A floor brush
- A clock
Look and draw these 3 objects and fill the paper quickly with your drawings and marks of these objects.
To help you with these drawings remember what you've learnt already in this project.
Here's an example for you
Looking and drawing is one part of an artist's work. Another part is using imagination.
Project Picture (2020) Example Composition
Drawing from memory with your eyes closed.
How do you do it?
From these 3 objects pick your favourite.
- Have your object in front of you
- Make sure you have something to draw with
- Close your eyes and draw the object
- Open your eyes to see what it looks like
It is fun to draw this many times with your eyes closed and on different size paper
It's OK
- if it's a scribble
- if it doesn't look exactly like the object
- if you make a mistake
Don't worry if you don't understand, the important thing is to draw what you remember. This is a quick and fun way to draw.
Project Picture (2020) Example Composition
Make a picture with your drawings (Composition)
Putting your drawings together. Have fun experimenting.
How do you do this?
- Have all your drawings from this project in front of you
- Experiment with putting your drawings one on top of the other
- Think about what they look like
- This may just be 2 drawings or it may be all of them
Remember there's no right and wrong. This is about what you like.
The Josef Herman Foundation Trustees are always happy to see responses to Josef Herman's work.
Share the pictures that you have made with us we would love to see them.
We have an Instagram Gallery that you can post your pictures on @orieljhcymru #jhsp20 #capsiwlcovidjh20 #josefherman
We hope that you liked learning about the Artist Josef Herman and making your own work.
If you want any more information you can visit the Josef Herman Art Foundation Website. http://josefhermanfoundation.org/
Project Artists: Gwenllian Beynon Nicola Dowdle Jessica Burtonshaw, Catrin Bradley, Owain Roberts. And a special thanks to Steff for testing this resource for us.
All of Josef Herman's art works used by kind permission of ©The estate of Josef Herman (not for commercial use) Photographs ©JHAFCymru ©Bernard Mitchell Herman studio ©Llew E. Morgan estate Herman Ystradgynlais. Work available at https://www.tate.org.uk/