BBC Four

Original version

BBC Four HD

Andrew Graham-Dixon

Phil Cairney

Scott James Bassett

British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash: Episode 3: David Bomberg: Prophet in No Man's Land

David Bomberg: Prophet in No Man's Land

Episode 3

Episode 3: David Bomberg: Prophet in No Man's Land

British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash

BBC Four - British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash, David Bomberg: Prophet in No Man's Land

Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of David Bomberg, who died in obscurity in Spain.

Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of David Bomberg, the startlingly original British painter who died in obscurity over 50 years ago.

In the years preceding 1914,  David Bomberg, Walter Sickert and Paul Nash set out to paint a new world, but, as the century unfolded, found themselves working in the rubble.

David Bomberg is now recognised as the most startlingly original British painter of his generation, but died in obscurity more than half a century ago. 

A Jewish immigrant from London's east end, his early modernist works pushed art to its limits. Fighting at the Somme, David Bomberg watched the world splinter and fall apart just like the works of art he had created. Bomberg spent the rest of his life searching for order in an increasingly disordered world, and his wanderings took him as far as Palestine, before he settled at the end of his life in Ronda, Spain. 

When he died in 1957, embattled and in poverty, he seemed to be no more than a footnote in the history of British art. However, the works that survive David Bomberg tell their own story. Combative and iconoclastic, he remains the most elusively original British painter of the 20th century.

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

The story of how three British artists responded to the cataclysm of World War One.

Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of how three British artists responded to the cataclysm of World War One.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash

Episode 3: David Bomberg: Prophet in No Man's Land

Contributors

Genres

Series

BBC Four HD

About BBC Four