James Fox TV - David Bomberg - Tate online -
These slums produced one of the finest artists of the twentieth century. His name was David Bomberg ... Bomberg could draw, and draw well. Dr James Fox, British Masters, BBC 2011
Like Wyndham-Lewis, Bomberg broke with centuries of tradition, producing fragmented painting of psychedelic originality. But his image was one of optimism. ibid.
This is Bomberg’s first great masterpiece: The Mud Bath ... Bomberg saw this painting as a great manifesto of the modern world. ibid.
Style is ephemeral – Form is eternal. David Bomberg
Good judgement is through good drawing – from the nervous system to the sensory of the brain it is the combination of eurythmics, euphony and poetry, and when the good draughtsman draws, the muses come to dance. Then the imagination is given full play, and design happens. They then become the Muses. David Bomberg
Speaking generally Art endeavours to reveal what is true and needs to be free. All things said regarding Art are subject to contradiction. An artist whose integrity sustains his strength to make no compromise with expediency is never degraded. His life work will resemble the integrating character of the primaries in the Spectrum. At the beginning, of the middle period, and at the end ... I approach drawing solely for structure. I am perhaps the most unpopular artist in England – and only because I am draughtsman first and painter second. Drawing demands a theory of approach, until good drawing becomes habit – it denies all rules. It requires high discipline ... Drawing demands freedom, freedom demands liberty to expand in space – this is progress. By the extension of democracy – good draughtsmanship is – Democracy’s visual sign. To draw with integrity replaces bad habits with good, youth preserved from corruption. The hand works at high tension and organises as it simplifies, reducing to barest essentials, stripping all irrelevant matter obstructing the rapidly forming organisation which reveals the design. This is drawing. David Bomberg
The exercise of drawing from the life brings out the individuality of the (artist) in the man. David Bomberg
Bomberg was the most audacious painter of his generation at the Slade. His treatment of the human figure, in terms of angular, clear-cut forms charged with enormous energy, reveals his determination to bring about a drastic renewal in British painting ...
Throughout the 1930s Bomberg’s art became broader and more impassioned as he sought to convey the essence of his response to landscapes in Scotland and Spain. This work met with little approval in Britain, and during World War II his outstanding series of Bomb Store paintings did not lead to further commissions from the War Artists Committee, despite his repeated requests. His last years were darkened by the realization that his art remained overlooked and even belittled in Britain. His final landscapes and figure paintings include some of his most powerful works. Tate online