Roger Herman may be the ultimate artist’s artist. Herman, a former professor in UCLA’s painting and drawing department and co-founder of the now-defunct Black Dragon Society gallery in Chinatown, lives with the work of his former students and friends crammed throughout his home.
Paintings, sculptures, ceramics and books line every available wall, shelf and tabletop. Los Angeles art world luminaries such as Raymond Pettibon, Ruby Neri and Adam Silverman are displayed alongside lesser-known artists beloved by Herman, 78, and his wife.
While the house is bursting with artwork that would make most museum curators envious, Herman’s home is surprisingly humble, built on a tight budget from prosaic materials.
Herman, a German transplant who has been in L.A. since 1977, is an artist whose vividly rendered paintings cemented him as one of the West Coast leaders of the ’80s neo-Expressionist movement. His early gallerist, Larry Gagosian, promoted him as the L.A. counterpart to art-world superstars Jean-Michel Basquiat and David Salle. His unconventional ceramics, like his painting, tend to be massively scaled and edge closer to sculpture than functional objects.
Despite a pedigree that includes work in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Hammer Museum, Herman remains resolutely modest and insatiably curious. When Herman incorporated ceramics into his practice in 1998, he turned to one of his graduate students, Lisa Yu, to teach him. “She got me started and was so generous,” he says. “She made me do 500 pots and bowls.”
Herman’s home embodies the same humility. Built in 1985 on a triangular lot abutting Elysian Park in Solano Canyon, Herman has spent the last four decades working and living in a house designed by his friend, architect Frederick Fisher of Frederick Fisher and Partners. Herman turned to Fisher, who was recently out of UCLA’s graduate school and Frank Gehry’s practice, when he wanted to build a house that could also accommodate a studio for his large-scale paintings.
Fisher says Herman requested a “castle in the woods,” citing his background from the Black Forest region of Germany. Fisher designed a 5,000-square-foot studio and home that combines the aesthetics of a downtown artist’s loft and the comforts of a single-family home in the working-class enclave that still offered inexpensive land. “It was a true collaboration,” Fisher says.
With a tight budget, Fisher and Herman were able to build the home for just $150,000, or $30 per square foot, a price that was nearly unheard of even in the early 1980s. The unfussy, DIY aesthetic is immediately apparent, with an exterior clad entirely in plywood sheeting that has been painted and repainted several times over the decades. The original clear stain was later painted a light green, then a dark green, then blue and is now back to green. Floors and ceilings are also plywood.
Steel casement windows and oversize doors used throughout the house are salvaged. Herman had begun salvaging parts before he even built the house, storing them in his studio loft in downtown L.A. until the time was right. “I had everything stored but I didn’t have a lot yet. I just had parts for a house. I wanted [it] as big as possible, of course, but I had no money. And Fred said we can figure it out,” Herman says.
The wedge-shaped footprint, built to the maximum allowable area, features a ground-level studio with 16-foot-high ceilings, clerestory windows and an overhead skylight to allow for natural light. Herman later added a wall to divide the studio space as well as custom shelving for his expansive library and ceramics.
On the second floor, a large, open room with a 12-foot-high ceiling serves as the communal living, dining and kitchen area. The entrance to the loft space is flanked by colorful, translucent plastic strips, allowing light and people to easily pass through. A wood-burning cast-iron stove serves as both fireplace and heater in the center of the living space. Down the book-lined hallway is an office, guest room and bathroom. A patio divides the two halves, providing access to the outdoors and opportunities to bring more light into both wings of the house. A third floor comprises the master bedroom, surrounded by three decks.
Herman worked with Fisher again to add a second building to the complex in 2003. Needing space to host gallerists, curators and visitors that felt more finished than his original studio, Herman asked Fisher to design a space to showcase his art, using many of the same principles as the original house.
There is still a large ground-floor studio but in a more refined finish. Downstairs is a small, cinderblock-enclosed ceramics studio where Herman builds his oversize vessels, starting on a wheel and then hand-building the rest of the vases before firing them in his own kiln. Upstairs is the office and studio of his wife, photographer Eika Aoshima. A lush cactus garden is bordered by Elysian Park, completing Fisher’s vision of the castle in the woods, but done in Southern California’s vernacular.
Herman’s latest exhibition at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Hollywood, “California Poppies,” embraces the same logic of experimentation and assemblage found in his home. (The show, which opened in June, runs through Saturday.) His paintings and ceramics are layered and collage-like, driven by instinct rather than by a predestined end point. Herman enjoys the capriciousness of the kiln, never knowing quite what will emerge from it.
The lack of predictability is exactly what drew Herman to ceramics in the first place. “When I make a painting, I have control of the paint and the brushstroke and image,” Herman says. “The nice thing about ceramics is you have to let it go. None of these expectations come out the way you want. It’s a good lesson.” The result is vibrant vases that are polished and imperfect.
Herman also creates ceramic tile-topped tables that are modular. Each tile is the same size, but for most of the tables, the abstraction of the design means collectors can choose how they are arranged.
“You can play with the tiles,” says Damien Anger, senior sales associate at Carpenters Workshop. “It’s very easy, and you can create your own composition.” On tabletops with less abstract design, such as one with a skull depicted, differences in glazing and firing mean there are variations in the hue and colors. The individual ceramic tiles create a complete composition but are also subject to the vicissitudes of the kiln.
While Herman was once known only for his massive canvases, today he has learned to appreciate the diminutive in his life and his work. Formerly the proud owner of three Great Danes, Herman now spends about two hours a day at the dog park to tire out his rescued Jack Russell mix, Willy.
Citing the influence of Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, who created humble still lifes of ceramics and flowers (“Those tiny paintings have a whole universe in them,” says Herman), he recently started making smaller mezcal cups and ceramic tomato graters. “Mezcal cups take as much work as the vases,” Herman says, laughing. He is delighted he can produce functional objects as well as massive paintings.
While Herman’s house is large by most standards, it personifies that same lack of ostentation. Surrounded by objects and art made by friends, Herman is happy to host and entertain them in his home. It’s not a surprising inclination for someone who spent so much of his life teaching generations of Los Angeles artists.
“Roger has been a believer in community,” says Fisher. “He’s always been about making and supporting a community of creative people.”
The post He had an L.A. home and studio built for $150,000 in 1985. It’s still a work of art appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
