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David Bomberg was one of England’s most neglected twentieth-century artists. He was perhaps the only artist of this century whose work, continuously experimental yet completely realized, encompassed the finest achievements in the past six decades of British art. Although he won critical acclaim before World War I as the most avant garde artist in England and had considerably influenced the Vorticist movement, it was not until the first retrospective exhibition of his work in 1958—one year after his death—that he was heralded as a master.
Reflecting his developing style and philosophy of art—which partly coincided with the experiments of |
Cezanne and the writings of Bishop Berkeley—the paintings and drawings after 1920 are part of the great British tradition of landscape and portraiture. Essentially a colourist, Bomberg portrayed the landscape of Palestine, Greece, Petra and Spain, as well as that of his native country. His unique achievement rests not only on his brilliant palette and handling of mass, but also in his roles as founder of the Borough Group in the late 1940’s and the Borough Bottega in the early 1950’s, and as a teacher who has exerted an enormous influence on the younger painters of today. As a philosopher of art Bomberg left in his writings perceptive and original statements about his methods his contemporaries, and the relation of art to society |
