Roger Herman is an artist who lives in Los Angeles, California. He was born in Saarbruecken, Germany. He went to school at Akademie der Kuenste in Karlsruhe, Germany where he earned a Masters of Fine Arts in 1976.
He currently pursues both his art and works as a professor of Fine Art at the University of California in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited globally in solo exhibitions and group exhibitions. On his website, there are over thirty exhibitions he has shown work in galleries. Currently he has work on display at Eaton Fine Art, Inc. and has had works displayed in the Los Angeles Museum of Art and the Orange County Museum of Art.
His creates his work mainly through painting and wood-cuts. His paintings are small to medium scaled and sometimes very large depending upon his mood and the subject he is trying to capture. They often are worked in oils and gouache. His subjects vary from still life to models and can be described as modern but not truly abstractions. His work has been described as expressionist or conceptional. “I don’t work from figuration or abstraction,” says Herman. “I’m a formalist but I don’t want to make an over-estheticized painting. I’m trying to go against my own control- freakness.” (Drohojowska-Phillip). I like that he tries not to over analyze his work. For a brief period of time he worked with nudes and describes the experience as “It opened up my painting-in a way.” Which is evident in the paintings. They have a different, more concrete feel to them.” (Drohojowska-Phillip). The nudes lent themselves to his soft pastels and broad brush strokes. He did some work with ceramics and said in regard to this foray, “For some reason, something special happens when it is off balance but still somewhat in control. You can’t do that consciously.” (Drohojowska-Phillip). His ceramics looked rushed and not compete.
Herman has completed some works that I was particularly drawn to like Medium Azusa a painting of rocks and a rocky hillside and Untitled which depicts trees and large areas of color intertwined with black lines.
Works Cited
Drohojowska-Phillip, Hunter. (2011). George Lawson Gallery. Web 17 Apr. 2015.
http://georgelawsongallery.com/artists/r_herman_writings.html
