Barges 1919

David Bomberg made "Barges" with oil on canvas, and it's got this amazing way of seeing, almost like cubism meets the canal. You can really feel the way the boats and their reflections chop up the water. There's something solid about how the shapes are built. Look at the thick, confident strokes defining the edges of the barges, and then see how they dissolve into the dark reflections underneath. It feels like Bomberg is wrestling with how to capture something fleeting and solid at the same time. The blues of the water are so alive, broken by these brutal, dark shapes. Notice how the reflections are almost more present than the boats themselves. It's like he’s asking us what’s real and what’s just a trick of the light. Bomberg, like someone like Mondrian, was really interested in pushing painting to be more about the act of seeing itself. He’s not just showing us barges, he’s showing us how we construct our view of the world.