BIOGRAPHY

Jonathan Herbert grew up in a house in which the walls were covered with paintings, drawings, and Japanese prints. Art has been in his blood all his life. He was a Museum of Modern Art regular from infancy.

In 1972 Herbert transferred from NYU to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He focused on etching, drawing and painting. Eventually Herbert found his mentor in Jan Cox, a member of the COBRA school, who was nurturing and supportive of his angry, figurative work.

When Cox returned home to Antwerp, the Museum School granted Herbert a coveted Independent Study Award and he followed Cox, for thirteen months in 1975 and 1976. The art Herbert produced during this sojourn were paintings of stark, labyrinthine plazas populated by solitary figures with body parts hacked off - those parts often lying on the ground nearby, still bleeding. In retrospect it is clear this work reflected his unutterable sense of alienation and isolation.

In 1976 Herbert moved back to New York, to a loft on Broome Street. He quickly joined the Downtown Scene: painting, and stumbling through the Mudd Club and other artists' bars. During this period the artist befriended Frank Marino and began exhibiting work in his Soho gallery. Herbert also showed in the East Village at the Nico Smith Gallery.

By 1980, Herbert was living in Hell's Kitchen. He created a large body of work entitled Views from a Yellow Cab, comprised of watercolors painted while driving, as well as gouaches and oils. In his cab, Herbert picked up the well-known art critic Cookie Mueller from a nightclub, she was fascinated by his simultaneous painting and driving, and she featured the artist in one of her Details magazine articles.