BOMBERG

David Bomberg was at the Slade until 1912, and was thus much younger than Lewis. But he was impressed by the older artists' ideas about art, and their attitudes about space and form coincided. He was a natural disciple of Lewis, though he would never have identified himself as such. His status as a 'Vorticist' was always in doubt; he did not exhibit in the 'Vorticist Room' in the 1914 London Group Exhibition, though his style was more Vorticist than some who were supposedly Vorticist. However, his contribution to the Vorticist cause was enormous.

Bomberg's life was a battle against the poverty. He grew up in Whitechapel, a poor immigrant area of East London. A lack of recognition in the 1920's and 1930's meant he barely lived above the breadline. His Jewish spirituality was at times the only thing keeping him alive. After various ailments brought on by poverty, he took up an offer to travel to the holy land where the landscape brought him a new hope for the future. This is reflected in his paintings of Palestine, showing a clear stylistic break from the past.

He tutored in the Camberwell School of Art and other colleges after the second world war, a role that gave him a new found confidence. He was able to impart his knowledge on to a new generation of artists who would rise to prominence in the 1960's. The post war public also began to give him a recognition he had never enjoyed in the past. Unfortunately he died before this recognition led to his belated inclusion in the canon of British Art History. However, his masterpieces (mostly from the Vorticist years) are now on public view in the Tate.