LONDON.- House of Illustration opened the first ever retrospective of seminal mid-century graphic designer George Him, the Polish-Jewish émigré who brought continental avant-garde aesthetics to the UK.
Spanning Him’s long and versatile career as both an independent designer and as one half of the prolific Lewitt-Him partnership (1933-1954), the exhibition includes iconic wartime propaganda posters for the Ministries of Food and Information, corporate branding for El Al airlines and adverts for clients including Schweppes, Technicolor, the Post Office and The Times. Describing himself as “roughly as old as graphic design in the modern sense”, George Him’s life and work runs parallel with the history of the profession.
Though a Royal Designer for Industry and a favourite of iconic British brands such as Penguin Books and Transport for London, Him’s work has far received less recognition than that of his UK-born contemporaries. Way ahead of his time, Him was an early champion of design as a worthy vocation in its own right, describing graphic designers “not as great artists graciously descending from their ivory tower to paint a pretty picture for an enterprising manufacturer, but practitioners… serving a clear-cut purpose and judged, not merely by aesthetic standards, but also by the degree in which it fulfils its given task.”
George Him: A Polish Designer for Mid-Century Britain includes over half a century’s worth of propaganda posters, advertisements, point-of-sale displays, children’s book illustrations, toys and cover art for clients in Poland, the UK, the USA and Israel. The exhibition also features sketches and reportage from Him’s travels overseas and personal objects from his St John’s Wood studio. Him’s distinctive blend of hard modernist lines and empathetic humour across his varied output mark him as one of the most important graphic artists of the 20th century.
This exhibition is part of Insiders/Outsiders.
Curator Olivia Ahmad says: “George Him was both an exceptional designer and an essential early voice for the social value of the practice of graphic design. Along with many other Jewish émigrés fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe in the 1930s and ’40s, Him brought European modernist sensibilities to the UK, transforming British graphic design and illustration in the process. At a time when Him’s contemporaries from the Royal College of Art’s ‘outbreak of talent’ are receiving their due recognition, we are proud to re-establish Him’s vital work in the story of 20th century British graphics.”
George Him (born Jerzy Himmelfarb in Lodz, Poland, 1900) was a graphic designer and illustrator based in Warsaw until 1937 and London after. Born to Russian Jewish parents, Him studied Law in Moscow until the Russian Revolution meant the closing of the faculty, earned a PhD in the comparative history of religions in Bonn, before enrolling at the Leipzig Academy for Graphic Art and Book Industry. He worked as a graphic designer from 1922, forming the Lewitt-Him partnership with Jan Le Witt in 1933. A fortuitous exhibition commission brought the pair to the UK in 1937 where they stayed throughout the Second World War; Him was naturalised British in 1948. The Lewitt-Him partnership ended in 1955, after which Him continued as an independent designer.
He worked on numerous campaigns and commissions including: wartime posters for the Ministries of Information and Food and the Polish and Dutch governments in exile; advertisements for Schweppes, the Post Office, Technicolor, The Times and American Overseas Airlines; corporate logos and branding for El Al airlines and the Australian Trade Commission; exhibition design for the Warsaw Ghetto Exhibition and the Masada Exhibition; magazine cover designs for New Middle East; television graphics for the Giant Alexander; and illustrations for a range of books published by Penguin and others. He was made Chief Designer at El Al airlines in 1960, became a Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design at Leicester Polytechnic in 1969 and was elected a Royal Designer for Industry in 1977. Him died in 1982 at the age of 81.
House of Illustration is the UK’s centre for illustration and graphic art. Its exhibition programme explores illustration from around the world, celebrating its rich and varied history and championing emerging talent. House of Illustration doesn’t just show illustration – it’s a place to learn and create, with a pioneering education programme for everyone from 2 year olds to retirees, beginners to professionals, all delivered by practising illustrators. A busy calendar of events includes talks, workshops, fairs and live drawing nights while the House of Illustration shop features exhibition merchandise and unique books, prints, cards and more from independent illustrators and makers.
Insiders/Outsiders is a nationwide arts festival celebrating refugees from Nazi Europe and their impact on British culture. It highlights the indelible contribution of the artists, photographers, writers, architects, designers, actors, film-makers, dancers and musicians as well as publishers, art historians, dealers and collectors who, in fleeing Nazi-dominated Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, greatly enriched this country’s culture.
