David Bomberg

by Richard Cork

Bomberg's career is a case study in neglect. The early popular canvases of this English painter buzzed with mechanistic imagery inspired by futurism. But after fighting on the front in World War I, he lost faith in the machine age. Living in Palestine in the 1920s, he forged a personal figurative style that culminated in such pictures as the remarkably panoramic and detailed Mount of Olives. In Toledo, where El Greco painted, Bomberg refined his expressive vision, an intensely physical response to the world. His menacing images of a WW II underground bomb silo swing between the abstract and representational. Naturalism won out in his Cornwall seascapes, pictures of Cyprus and St. Paul's Cathedral and in the semi-abstract late landscapes in which forces of day and night struggle for supremacy. Cork, a British art critic, has written the definitive monograph on an artist whose reputation has increased steadily since his death in 1957.

Genres: Art, Fiction

344 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 1988

Reviews

[Kristianne]

Our latest episode of Bowie Book Club is up. This time we discuss robots in yellow tubes, lives of wives and, of course, speculate on why this catalog, which is in many ways more about Lilian Bomberg, who was married to David Bomberg, made it on to David Bowie's 100 most influential book list. Check it out...

[Karen]

David Bowie’s Formative Reading List of 75 Favorite Books
#15

[AndyDobbieArt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough portrayal of this inspiring artist, which provides a great deal of insight into the trials and tribulations he suffered in pursuit of his art.