Ben Uri Gallery & Museum

Join us on Thursday, 11th July 6:30pm for a talk by Jane England from the series for the exhibition 'Jankel Adler: A 'Degenerate' Artist in Britain 1940-1949'
In this talk, Jane England will focus on the work of the Glasgow-born artist Benjamin Creme (1922-2016) as part of a more general discussion about the circle of artists that gathered around the émigré Polish artist Jankel Adler (1895-1949) in Glasgow and later in London in the 1940s.
Tickets are available via this link... https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talk-by-ja ne-england-benjami…
Now extended, due to popular demand, the exhibition is open every Monday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., until 22 July (inclusive), or by prior appointment (Tuesday-Friday) during these dates.
Benjamin Creme: The Anchorite, 1943. Oil on board. Private Collection, courtesy of England and Co. Gallery, London
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Join us tomorrow at 1pm for Rachel Dickson's curatorial tour of exhibition J'ANKEL ADLER: A 'DEGENERATE ARTISTS IN BRITAIN 1940-1949.'
Pictured here David Herman and Rachel Dickson holding Josef Herman's tallit- a gift to the artist from Jankel Adler, which he cherished and always kept in his studio.
Please follow the link for tickets or contact admin@benuri.org for further details. ... https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/curatorial -tour-of-jankel-ad…
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Did you know...A complete survey of Bomberg's work was not shown until 1988, thirty years after his death, organised by The Tate?
Read more in the Bomberg Monograph http://benuri.org.uk/shop/

Ben Uri Gallery runs a range of activities across several locations; from our touring lecture series and creative art sessions at residential care homes, to art therapy sessions in dementia day care centres, gallery tours and a range of fun one-off events.
Read more on our website http://benuri.org.uk/

David Bomberg, The Last Self Portrait, 1956, Oil Canvas, Pallant House Gallery, Wilson Gift through The Art Fund (2006)
Conceived and executed with an apparent awareness of his impending death, Bomberg’s Last Self-portrait is a remarkable and haunting finale to his artistic career. His hands firmly grasp the tools of his trade, but his face and body have been built up with layers of paint and bold streaks of colour in a near-abstract manner. The critic John Russell likened t...hese layers to ‘grave-cloths stained with millinery dyes’, and paid tribute to the portrait as ‘one of the most extraordinary achievements in post- war painting’.
© Pallant House Gallery, courtesy of David Bomberg Estate (© Mark Heathcote)
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David Bomberg, Tajo and Rocks (The Last Landscape), 1956, Oil on canvas, Pallant House Gallery, Wilson Loan (2006)
Bomberg’s final landscape demonstrates how, increasingly in his mature works, the intensity of his brushwork began to break down the solid structures and geometry that had always underpinned his compositions. Here, colour is given free expression, dissolving into light, embodying Bomberg’s much-quoted dictum of the ‘spirit in the mass’. The Tajo river rises in central Spain and runs past the city of Toledo towards Portugal. As in his other late landscapes, Bomberg was greatly inspired by the rugged, mountainous terrain of Spanish Andalusia.
© Pallant House Gallery, courtesy of David Bomberg Estate)

Did you know...From Ben Uri Gallery's inception as an art society in Whitechapel in 1915, to the gallery's current status as a museum with an international reach, the collection has grown to more than 1300 works across 30 different mediums?
Read more in the Bomberg Monograph http://benuri.org.uk/shop/

Freud Museum London is hosting some exciting events over the next few weeks: Psychoanalysis & Exile 1938-2018 conference event on the experience of those living in exile, from 1938 to the present day (https://www.freud.org.uk/ev…/psychoana lysis-exile-1938-2018/) and a talk to mark a new acquisition “The Psychoanalyst” by Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (https://www.freud.org.uk/…/marie-louis e-von-motesiczky-pai…/). More info and booking on the website, don't miss it!

After Bomberg returned to London from a camping holiday in 1947, the Borough Group, formed by some of his students at Borough Polytechnic, held its inaugural exhibition at the Archer Gallery. As stated in the catalogue foreword, the Group had been 'founded on the belief that there is in nature a truth and a realism which the usual contemporary approach to painting is unable to convey'. Read more in the Bomberg Monograph http://benuri.org.uk/shop/

Did you know...Bomberg taught at the Borough Polytechnic in Southwark (now London Southbank University) from 1945 until 1953?
Read more in the Bomberg Monograph http://benuri.org.uk/shop/

David Bomberg, Talmudist, 1953, Oil on canvas, Pallant House Gallery, Wilson Gift through The Art Fund (2006)
Painted during a temporary estrangement from Lilian, the self-portrait Talmudist expresses a latent spirituality, probably inspired by Bomberg’s admiration for El Greco. His right eye looks outward towards the viewer, but the left of his face is partially covered. Talmudist contains no symbols of the Jewish faith, yet its deep introspection suggests the quality of keen concentration required by the aspiring religious scholar, while the dark brushwork on the brim of the hat is reminiscent of Christ’s crown of thorns.
© Pallant House Gallery, courtesy of David Bomberg Estate (© Mark Heathcote)

The Artists Sister-in-Law, Olive, 1943, Charcoal on paper, The artist's niece, Cecily Bomberg. Olive, Bomberg’s young, gentle, Irish Catholic sister-in-law, was married to his youngest brother John. As her husband was away serving in the RAF, Olive stayed with the Bombergs in Queensgate Mews in Kensington during the war.
As her daughter Cecily recalls, Olive’s conversations with Bomberg during this period inspired her greatly, opening up ‘a whole new sphere of life’. With he...r hands clasped in a gesture of either patience or rapt attention, Bomberg captures a personality sensitively attuned to his fluctuating moods. Their mutual respect continued for the rest of his life.
© The estate of David Bomberg, the Bridgeman Art Library (Photography © Justin Piperger)
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Did you know...Bomberg's work was rejected by the Tate in July 1937, when he offered four of his paintings? The Tate 'purchased only two' of his paintings, one bought via the Duveen Fund in 1923, and 'a donated flowerpiece...in 1952'.
Read more in the Bomberg Monograph http://benuri.org.uk/shop/

Both Ben Uri’s collection and works in the community focus on universal themes of Art, Identity and Migration. You can access and discover powerful works in the Ben Uri Collection and learn about Ben Uri's artists and their stories at http://www.benuricollection.org.uk

David Bomberg, Ghetto Theatre, 1920, Oil on Canvas, Ben Uri Collection
In this final version of his savage masterpiece, Ghetto Theatre, with its sombre red/brown palette, Bomberg shows drably-dressed spectators, with mask-like faces and closed body language. The hunched figure in the upper left foreground, leaning on a stick, suggests his disillusionment. The compressed space, dramatically split in two by a balcony rail, creates a claustrophobic intensity reminiscent of the wartime trenches.
© Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, courtesy of David Bomberg estate (Photography © Justin Piperger)

David Bomberg, Ghetto Theatre, 1920, Gouache and pencil on paper, Private Collection
Bomberg and his fellow ‘Whitechapel Boys’ frequented the Yiddish theatre, particularly the Pavilion Theatre in Whitechapel. Following the disappointment of his controversial war artist’s commission, Bomberg returned to this East End subject, perhaps hoping to rekindle his prewar exuberance. Following the example of his tutor, Walter Sickert, he turned his attention away from the stage to focus on the audience. In this previously unexhibited version of the painting, the acidic yellow palette echoes his strong postwar malaise.
© The estate of David Bomberg, the Bridgeman Art Gallery

Did you know...Bomberg held his final solo exhibition in London in 1943 at the Leger Gallery, which received little press attention?
Read more in the Bomberg Monograph http://benuri.org.uk/shop/

Did you know...the Ben Uri collection includes master works by seminal artists, spans 120 years and includes 380 artists from 35 countries, of which 67% are émigrés and 27% women.
Browse the collection online at http://www.benuricollection.org.uk