PRESS RELEASE 2007

DAVID BOMBERG (1890-1957)

An exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of his death
paintings and works on paper

23 May – 30 June 2007

As we mark the 50th anniversary of his death, the Boundary Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition in celebration of David Bomberg’s life and works.Demand for his work and his reputation have never been greater.

The exhibition will feature paintings and drawings from 1919 to his final years. To complement the works on sale, the exhibition will also include many works from private collections providing a well-rounded representation of his oeuvre.

Bomberg is one of the leading artists of the 20th century due to his uncompromising artistic integrity and breadth of vision – which, during his lifetime, led to rejection and poverty. His approach to painting – based on drawing as a representation, not of the ‘appearance of Form but more the representation of all our feelings about form’ was distinctly original in England during his lifetime and remains so to this day.

A group of drawings executed after the end of the First World War amply demonstrates Bomberg’s transition from the Vorticist to the expressionist – one of these works is a remarkable and rare watercolour, Mother and Child which will form the centrepiece of this exhibition. His five years in Palestine were very productive and Moonlight in Jerusalem painted in 1925 will be in the exhibition. The Boundary Gallery is also proud to present Bomberg’s probably best known self portrait - Self Portrait with Hat together with an unusual Double Self Portrait – a marvellous charcoal drawing, also from 1931. In 1937 Bomberg painted some London views, including River and St. Paul as well as The River Thames with Tower Bridge, a magnificent burnt orange painting. A sensuous flower painting (exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery 1979) unusually from the same year will also be on display.

In 1951 and 1952 Bomberg barely painted but there were two days when he did – two of Dinora (his stepdaughter) and two of Leslie Marr, her husband, also an artist. We managed to bring together one of each and show them together for the first time!

Other works characteristic of his love of landscape from his time in Cornwall and Devon during the early years of the second World War will be followed by some of his famous bomb stores compositions and finally, charcoals and paintings, featuring his beloved Ronda years will also be hung. The last one, Mother of Venus – 1954,an oil of a reclining nude from the rear – despondent, lonely, misunderstood symbolises his own feelings towards the end. As Miles Richmond, his pupil at the Borough Polytechnic who became his firm friend and lived with him in Spain during his last three years, said Bomberg did not show emotion but when he did, it was strong.

Miles Richmond will talk about Bomberg and answer questions on 21 June