Bomberg

Shunned by the art establishment in his own lifetime, ROSALIND ORMISTON discovers how a retrospective is exploring this painter’s monumental talent.

- Rosalind Ormiston

On 27 August 1957, soon after the artist David Bomberg had died of cirrhosis caused by malnutrition, The Times published a short obituary on the English painter. It was called ‘A Vision of Independence’, unwittingly summing up Bomberg’s dispassionate attitude to the art establishment, which had shunned his work for 40 years. Today, he is recognised as one of the great artists of the 20th century and a major review of his work is on show at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester.

The exhibition coincides with the 60th anniversary of his untimely death, and brings together defining examples of Bomberg’s oeuvre, including a radical pre-First World War masterpiece Ju-Jitsu – both the original study, and finished work – and early post-war works, such as Barges and Ghetto Theatre, which centred on London and the Whitechapel community in which Bomberg grew up. Later pieces from 1923-35 include powerful landscapes of Palestine, with Jerusalem City and Mount of Ascension, part of a commission from the Zionist Organisation, orchestrated by Sir Muirhead Bone, to record the activities of Jewish settlers. Bomberg’s life in Spain is narrated too, with several examples, including the painterly, topographical Ronda Bridge, and dramatic nightscene The Virgin of Peace in Procession through the Streets of Ronda, Holy Week, both densely textured in rich colour.