Study for ‘Sappers at Work: A Canadian Tunnelling Company, Hill 60, St Eloi’ c. 1918 - 1919

Curator: Here we have David Bomberg's study for 'Sappers at Work: A Canadian Tunnelling Company, Hill 60, St Eloi,’ a large, arresting canvas full of blue and white geometry. Editor: It hits you, doesn’t it? A fractured space, bodies in the gears of something awful. I feel claustrophobia looking at it. Curator: Indeed. Bomberg sought to capture the intense, disorienting experience of the First World War. He was commissioned to create a painting depicting the Canadian sappers. Editor: It’s more than a depiction; it's an evocation. The angular forms, the pale figures almost dissolving into the harsh light. It's like a machine chewing them up, or a mine collapsing. I can almost taste the dust. Curator: Bomberg, after his service in the war, moved away from the Vorticist style. But you can see the roots of that influence here. Editor: It’s a powerful study, raw and visceral. Bomberg really makes you feel the brutal nature of war. It certainly affected my understanding of it all. Curator: Absolutely.