Waiting on the Platform
Fermin Rocker was born on 22 December 1907 in the East End of London, England, the son of the German Catholic anarchist Rudolf Rocker, editor of the weekly 'Arbeiter Freynd', and a Russian-Jewish, Yiddish-speaking mother. During the First World War, Rudolf was interned as an enemy alien and afterwards the family settled in Germany, where Fermin studied at the Realschule and the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Berlin. In 1929 they moved again, to New York, where he worked as an illustrator and a commercial artist, later concentrating on etching, lithographs and painting. Fermin Rocker held solo exhibitions in 1944 and 1961 and exhibited at the Whitney Art Gallery and the Chicago Institute of Art. In 1972 he returned to London where, in the last 20 years of his life, he held 13 solo exhibitions. His work focuses on interiors, city scenes and landscapes. His autobiography, 'The East End Years: a Stepney Childhood', was published in 1997 to coincide with this 90th birthday. Fermin Rocker died in London, England on 18 October 2004 and a retrospective was held at The Chambers Gallery in the same year, followed by another in 2005-6. His work is held in UK public collections including the Ben Uri Collection and Tower Hamlets Local History Library.
