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Radical Rocker revisited

Artist Fermin Rocker was born into a family of radicals and anarchists and loved capturing the ordinary, writes Mark Blunden

AT 96 years old Fermin Rocker still carried his sketchbook everywhere, even to hospital appointments.
From boy to pensioner, the London-born artist’s life saw him deported to inter-war Germany, then live in New York, before moving back to Holloway, where he lived until his death last year.
But to understand Rocker, and his epic paintings of revolution and every day life, is to understand the family from which he came.
His German anarchist/socialist father Rudolph met his Jewish mother Milly Witkop after becoming involved with the Jewish tailors’ trade union movement around Stepney and Whitechapel.
After teaching himself Yiddish, Rudolph ended up editing the Yiddish anarchist weekly Arbaiter Fraind. Rocker senior and the young Fermin would often travel to the East London docks to marvel at the tall ships as they raced up the Thames.
This is where the boy, always sketchbook in hand, began his passion for art and his love of boats. Many of his pieces reflect Rocker’s transient life. He lived through two world wars and experienced the sharp end of political extremism.
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