LONDON.- Following the success of two recent shows which presented David Bomberg’s work in the context of his leading role in the Borough group, Waterhouse & Dodd announce a solo exhibition of the British artist’s paintings and drawings this November.

The exhibition is particularly interesting because all the works were sourced from one private English collector. They were acquired over a 10 year period, during which time the collector only bought paintings and drawings by Bomberg. He employed an unusual degree of discipline, focusing initially on the angular figurative works Bomberg produced in the aftermath of the First World War. The remit of the collection developed to encompass other phases of the artist’s career, but the central dedication to expressive figuration never wavered. As the collector explains in our catalogue: “I never stopped being captivated by those 1919 angular figures, and the more I came across the greater depth I found within them.”

After accepting an invitation to view the collection in May this year, Jamie Anderson noted: “I was astonished by the group, both in terms of their individual quality and how cohesive the collection was. They hung so well together that almost immediately my thoughts turned from working with individual pieces to creating a formal exhibition.”

David Bomberg deserves to be considered alongside the greatest British artists of the 20th century. His ground-breaking early masterpieces saw him aligned closely to the Vorticist group and proved hugely influential on a generation of British artists. This period of fame and promise was brief, curtailed principally by the onset of the First World War. As with many of his peers, active service left an indelible mark on Bomberg. It was as a direct response to the war that he abandoned the mechanical styling of his earlier work in favour of a more emotional and expressive handling of paint. This transition, however, alienated some of his earlier supporters; the following years included dark periods of critical and commercial neglect.

From 1945 he was reduced to teaching evening classes at the Borough Polytechnic having been largely ostracised by the mainstream art schools and the commercial galleries of the time. Yet from these humble surroundings, he inspired a second generation of figurative artists including Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach and the members of the Borough Group. His influence can still be keenly felt today.

Although his style of painting was deemed terminally unfashionable in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a significant reappraisal of Bomberg’s work in the 1980s with the publication of Richard Cork’s authoritative monograph and a major retrospective at the Tate Gallery. The tireless efforts of his wife, Lilian and a few dedicated dealers and galleries saw that his critical rehabilitation was married to a commercial renaissance. Bomberg is now one of the few Modern British artists whose works can command over £1million at auction. 2017 marks the 60th anniversary of his death, with the publication of a major new monograph by Sarah Macdougall of the Ben Uri Gallery and a new touring retrospective that opens at the Pallant House Gallery (Chichester) on the 21st October. Our collector took this as a sign that it was timely to bring his treasures into the public eye. This exhibition constitutes a rare opportunity to observe the career of a still underappreciated artist at closer range, via the mediation of someone who has investigated it intimately.