| Lewitt-Him
was a collaborative design partnership between the two
Polish-born artists Jan LeWitt
and George Him. The two artists
met in a café in Warsaw in 1933 and a 'friendship
sprang up between them and they were so impressed with
the similarity of their ideals and ideas that they finally
decided to work together as a team.' They discovered
that the work that they produced between them was quite
different (and superior to) the work that they produced
individually. They developed a 'keen sense of comedy
and burlesque'. They worked in Poland where the advertising
profession was less specialised than in the UK and covered
not only their own designs, but their own copy-writers
and typographers. They moved to London in 1937, when
their work was shown in London by Lund-Humpries, and
national advertising commissions followed.
During the Second World War Lewitt-Him designed posters,
in particular for ROSPA, the GPO and the MOF. Art
and Industry noted that their work 'enjoyed a marked
success', with their best efforts 'embracing a humorous
motive', although they were 'versatile'. Early designs
for the Ministry of Information were never used, although
the Polish Ministry of Information used their designs
extensively. By late 1942, their main work was illustrating
children's books, although they continued with poster
work and designed murals for war factory canteens.
In 1948 a diploma was awarded to Jan Le Witt and George
Him at the International Poster Exhibition for a poster
they designed for LT. Post-war, they designed murals
for the Festival of Britain (1951), and it's Guinness
Clock. Their work was exhibited in Jerusalem and Tel
Aviv in 1948, and in New York and Philadelphia in
1953. In 1946, their work was discussed in Art
and Industry, particularly the relation of their
work to surrealism, and again in September 1953. In
1954 the partnership was dissolved.
Information collated from: Darracott, J.,
and Loftus, B., Second World War Posters, 1972
(1981 edition), p.44; 'Lewitt-Him - A Collaboration
of Ideals and Ideas', Art and Industry, Vol.
33, No.194, August 1942, pp.38-41; 'Jan Le Witt',
Poster Database, LTM, accessed February 2000; Livingston,
A., and Livingston, I., The Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia
of Graphic Design and Designers, 1992, p.120;
Amstutz, W., Who's Who in Graphic Art?, 1962,
p.242, 249; Williams-Ellis, A., 'Lewitt-Him and the
Uses of Nonsence', Art and Industry, Vol. 42,
No. 250, April 1947, pp.104-111; de Holden Stone,
J., 'Pair of Aces', Art and Industry, Vol.
55, No.327, September 1953, pp.82-89
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