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David Bomberg

(1890-1957), Painter

David Garshen Bomberg

Sitter in 5 portraits
Artist of 5 portraits
Born to Polish-Jewish immigrants and raised in the East End, Bomberg studied at Westminster School of Art (1908-10) under Walter Sickert and the Slade School of Art (1911-13) with the support of Sargent and the Jewish Educational Aid Society. In 1913, he met Picasso and Modigliani in Paris. Brancusi, Duchamp-Villon and Marinetti visited his first exhibition in London in 1914, where he made his name as a radical innovator. In his self-portraits of the 1920s and 30s, he abandoned his mechanistic style for expressive naturalism, paint and colour. His paintings Mud-Bath and In The Hold are Vorticist masterpieces. Bomberg later taught at Borough Polytechnic (1945-53). Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff were his pupils.

Watch a film clip on the artist from the BBC Archive in the Media section below

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David Bomberg, by David Bomberg - NPG 4522

David Bomberg

by David Bomberg
chalk, 1913-1914
NPG 4522

David Bomberg, by David Bomberg - NPG 4821

David Bomberg

by David Bomberg
charcoal and wash, 1931
NPG 4821

David Bomberg ('Self-Portrait with Pipe'), by David Bomberg - NPG 6653

David Bomberg ('Self-Portrait with Pipe')

by David Bomberg
oil on board, circa 1932
On display in Room 31 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 6653

David Bomberg, by David Bomberg - NPG 5345a

David Bomberg

by David Bomberg
oil on millboard, circa 1937
NPG 5345a

David Bomberg, by David Bomberg - NPG 5345b

David Bomberg

by David Bomberg
oil on millboard, circa 1937
NPG 5345b

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