David Bomberg, ‘The Mud Bath’, 1914 © Tate
Young Bomberg and the Old Masters – National Gallery For the first time, revolutionary early paintings by the British modernist artist David Bomberg (1890–1957) are displayed alongside National Gallery pictures that had a great influence on him. National Gallery, London, 27 November 2019 – 1 March 2020.]]>
Source: National Gallery of Art, London
”Young Bomberg and the Old Masters” shows nine outstanding Bomberg works together with paintings from the National Gallery which inspired him as a young radical growing up in London’s East End. They include Botticelli’s “Portrait of a Young Man” and Studio of El Greco’s “The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane”.
They are shown near Bomberg’s monumental masterpiece ‘The Mud Bath’ (1914, Tate), painted when he was only 23 years old. It echoes Michelangelo’s ‘The Entombment’ in its composition and thrusting energy. Other works by Bomberg include the dramatic ‘Vision of Ezekiel’ (1912, Tate), inspired by the sudden death of his beloved mother Rebecca and the theme of the resurrection in the Old Testament; ‘Ju-Jitsu’ (c.1913, Tate), a geometrical and fractured painting based on his brother’s East End gym; and the spectacular ‘In the Hold’ (c.1913–14, Tate), where dockers appear to be unloading migrant adults and children from a ship. These Bomberg paintings are shown with their preparatory drawings as well as his bold ‘Self Portrait’ (1913–14, National Portrait Gallery) and the highly controversial first version of his war painting ‘Sappers at Work: A Canadian Tunnelling Company, Hill 60, St Eloi’ (c.1918–19, Tate).
The exhibition is curated by award-winning art critic and historian Richard Cork, who draws illuminating parallels between Bomberg’s early works and other National Gallery paintings which may have impacted on his compositions.
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