David Bomberg (December 5, 1890 – August 19, 1957) was a painter, born in Birmingham, England. Bomberg grew up in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. After studying art at City and Guilds, Bomberg was at first apprenticed to a chromolithographer, training as a lithographer, but quit to concentrate on preparing for entry to the Slade after only a year. Simultaneously Bomberg took night classes at the central Westminster School of Art (where he was taught by Walter Sickert), and later at the Slade School of Art. He travelled to France where he met Modigliani and Picasso.
Bomberg's first well known works date from the 1910s. They are rather complex geometric compositions built over relatively traditional subjects, and typically use a limited number of striking colours. Humans are turned into simple, angular shapes, and a simple grid-work colouring scheme sometimes overlays the whole painting. In The Hold and The Mud Bath can be said to be typical of this period. At this time, Bomberg was associated with Vorticism, though he never allowed himself to be a full member of the movement, despite Wyndham Lewis' efforts, not allowing his work to be reproduced in BLAST, the Vorticists' journal, for example. Later, Bomberg's works became more representational, and from the late 1920s his style became more expressionist. He painted a number of portraits and landscapes of the places he travelled to in the Middle East and Europe. Bomberg also worked as a teacher at the Borough Polytechnic (now London South Bank University in London from 1945 to 1953, where he taught Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, among others. One of the student halls of residences, David Bomberg House, is named after him. Bomberg died in London in 1957, his critical stock rising sharply thereafter.
A major retrospective of Bomberg's work was held at the Tate Gallery, London, in 1988. In 2006, Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal (Cumbria) mounted the first major exhibition of Bomberg's paintings for nearly twenty years: David Bomberg: Spirit in the Mass (17 July – 28 October 2006). Prior to that, the exhibition David Bomberg en Ronda at the Museo Joaquin Peinado in Ronda in Andalusia (1 - 30 October 2004) showed work by Bomberg in the city and environment which he had celebrated in paintings and drawings in 1934-35 and 1954-47. Work from one of the best collections in private hands was shown on the fiftieth anniversary of his death in the exhibition In celebration of David Bomberg 1890-1957 at Daniel Katz Gallery, Old Bond Street, London (30 May - 13 July 2007).
References
- Paintings and drawings. London, Arts Council 1967. (Exhibition catalogue.)
- David Bomberg, 1890-1957 / [by] Roy Oxlade. London: Royal College of Art, 1977. ISBN 0902490230
- David Bomberg : the later years / [edited by Nicholas Serota and Jennifer Brook]. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, [1979] (Exhibition catalogue) ISBN 0854880453
- David Bomberg in Palestine, 1923-1927 / [curator in charge, Stephanie Rachum ; assistant curator, Hedva Raff ; English editing, Barbara Gingold]. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1983. (Exhibition catalogue.) ISBN 9652780154
- David Bomberg, 1890-1957: a tribute to Lilian Bomberg, March 14-April 12, 1985. London: Fischer Fine Art Ltd., [1985?] (Uxbridge, Middlesex: Hillingdon Press)
- Richard Cork, David Bomberg (Yale, 1987). ISBN 0300038275
- David Bomberg: Spirit in the Mass; Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, 17 July - 28 October 2006. (Lakeland Arts Trust, 2006). (Exhibition catalogue.) ISBN 1902498283
- David Bomberg en Ronda; Museo Joaquin Peinado, Ronda, 1 - 30 October 2004. (Museo Joaquin Peinado, 2004). (Exhibition catalogue with text by Richard Cork and Michael Jacobs.) ISBN 0954505816
- In celebration of David Bomberg 1890-1957; Daniel Katz Gallery, London, 30 May - 13 July 2007). (Daniel Katz Ltd, 2007). (Exhibition catalogue with text by Richard Cork and Miles Richmond.) ISBN 9780954505851
External links
- Early works
- Work inspired by WWI
- Art Encyclopedia entry
- Bomberg's works at the Tate Gallery
- Fine Art — David Bomberg
- Article on the Whitechapel Boys
- David Bomberg: Spirit in the Mass exhibition at the Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, 17 July – 28 October 2006 (see also exhibition catalogue)
- Guardian review of Abbot Hall exhibition
