Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1910 Whitechapel, London, E1, England

Died: 1999 London, England

Other name/s: Nero, Piunero, Harry ‘Nero’ Blacker

Biography

Artist Harry Blacker, known professionally as 'Nero', was born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in Whitechapel, London, England on 1 May 1910 and grew up in the East End. His excellent studies at Hebrew classes at Bethnal Green school made him a promising candidate for the Rabbinate, but he left school at 14 and spent five years as an apprentice learning printing and engraving, also attending evening classes at the Sir John Cass Technical Institute in Aldgate East. Blacker’s first commission for the Radio Times led to others from the Daily Herald, Daily Express and News Chronicle. He subsequently designed posters for Shell-Mex, BP, London Transport, and the Post Office, becoming known as the ‘Giles’ of Anglo-Jewry, after the renowned Daily Express cartoonist. He also painted theatre scenery, and even assisted Edward Bainbridge Copnall in the carving of 15ft high bas-reliefs, still visible on the RIBA building in Portland Place, London. In 1932 Blacker exhibited his sculpture and illustrations at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, before joining clothing store, Simpson of Piccadilly's advertising department, where he worked with Bauhaus founder, Hungarian émigré, László Moholy-Nagy. He later worked as a creative designer for a Mayfair advertising agency. He participated in the East End Academy exhibitions held at the Whitechapel in 1934 and 1939, the Jewish Chronicle noting that his ‘little pen and ink sketches Missionary and Flotsam are finely compressed. More is concentrated into these few deeply felt and finely wrought square inches than in many square yards of lavishly painted canvas’ (S. 1934, p. 20).

Blacker first became interested in cartooning during the Second World War, when he served in the Royal Artillery; he also edited and illustrated the army camp newspaper, and made woodcuts reflecting life in Poperinghe Barracks, in Arborfield, Berkshire. Blacker subsequently contributed cartoons to various publications including Punch, Liliput, the Jewish Chronicle, Daily Express and The Stage, among others, often presenting the 'unique identity of a community torn between tradition and assimilation, between spiritual ascent and the more social variety' in a distinctive visual form (Independent obituary). In 1962 he shared first prize in the Cartoon Competition held by the Jewish Chronicle with R. D. Sless and from then on he developed a reputation as the premier cartoonist of the Anglo-Jewish community. A master in his caustic depiction of the realities of Jewish life in England, Blacker explored the contradictions that ‘he perceived amidst the complex interplay of Jewish identity and tradition on the one hand and the assimilation to British society and culture on the other’ (University of Southampton).

Blacker was a member of and gave talks at Club 1943, an organisation founded by a group of German refugee intellectuals, predominantly Jewish, at the beginning of 1943; he also lectured at the Jewish Association of Cultural Societies (JACS) Club, Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) Club and the Woolwich and District Synagogue Ladies Guild. Blacker was an active member of the Ben Uri Arts Committee and had a solo exhibition at Ben Uri in Dean Street, Soho, in 1971 under his professional name, 'Nero' (meaning ‘black’ in Italian), entitled Some of my Best Jokes are Jewish - a New Collection of Cartoons>/em>; followed by New Cartoons in 1973; he participated in the Cartoon and Caricature Exhibition in 1975. A versatile artist, he also produced landscapes, still lifes, abstracts, portraits and figure studies in oil, watercolour, pastel, charcoal, pencil, pen and ink, etching, lithography and linocut, which were featured in a major exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1980, followed by a retrospective at Lauderdale House, Waterlow Park in 1981. In a review of the latter, the Jewish Chronicle art critic Barry Fealdman commented that ‘The entire exhibition creates the impression of a highly skilled and inventive craftsman working over the years with great integrity and with a vitality that is always a delight to behold’ (Fealdman 1981, p. 22). Blacker published two books about his reminiscences of the East End, Just Like It Was: Memoirs of the Mittel East (1974) and East Endings (1989). The latter was launched at Ben Uri and was also the title of a 1993 Mark Jay documentary about the artist, who was filmed surrounded by old friends in one of the last remaining kosher cafes in the East End. A retrospective was held at Ben Uri Gallery in 1986.

Harry Blacker died in London, England on 27 June 1999. Posthumously his work has featured in exhibitions including Jewish Cartoonists and Political Caricaturists at Ben Uri Gallery (2001), A 20th Century Jewish Experience, Sternberg Centre for Judaism (2003) and Jew(ish) Cartoons at the Jewish Museum London (2018). His work is held in UK public collections including Ben Uri, Borough of Tower Hamlets, Jewish Museum London, and London Transport Museum. His archive, comprising correspondence, photographs and original artworks, is held at the University of Southampton.