Swiss-born artist and one of Australia’s Official War Artists for WW2,  Sali Herman, was born on 12 February 1898. He arrived in Melbourne in 1937 and enlisted in the Australian Army in 1941. In 1945, he was appointed an Official War Artist, painting at several places in the Pacific. such as Rabaul.

• He submitted 26 paintings to the Australian War Memorial.

Above: Crashed Fighter Plane (oil on hardboard) painted in Bougainville, 1945 (Australian War Memorial, Canberra).

Sali Herman is mostly known for paintings of inner city streets and slums in Sydney. He was awarded the Sulman Prize in 1946 for Natives carrying wounded soldiers, and also in 1948 for The Drovers. He won the Wynne Prize four times; in 1944 for McElhone Stairs; in 1962 for The Devil’s Bridge, Rottnest; again in 1965 for The Red House; and in 1967 for Ravenswood I.

• He died on 3rd April 1993.

The success of Herman’s art reaffirms it, that:
…”Something Tells Me I’m into Something Good“.

Website | About | Facebook | Twitter

“Is It Art?”