David Bomberg’s landscapes can be understood as more than representations of place; they are sustained investigations into the vitality of matter and form. From the rugged cliffs of Ronda to the rolling hills of Palestine, his brushstrokes grasped not just the visual contours of place but its energy, weight, and atmosphere. These paintings are rarely described in ecological terms. Yet, viewed through today’s lens of environmental concern, Bomberg’s landscapes, and those of his students, can open up conversations about how art engages with land, matter, and the fragile balance of the natural world.
Painting as Encounter with Place
Bomberg urged his students to “find the spirit in the mass,” a phrase that spoke not just to the structure of form but to a deeper sense of vitality within matter itself. In his landscapes, rock is never inert, and earth is never still. Hills swell, skies churn, rivers pulse with motion. This vision resonates with contemporary ecological thinking, which increasingly recognises the agency of landforms, rivers, and ecosystems as more than passive scenery for human activity. Bomberg’s landscapes remind us that the natural world has force, presence, and its own rhythms.
The Borough Group and the Material World
Bomberg’s students took this lesson into their own landscapes. Miles Richmond’s Spanish vistas, Dennis Creffield’s urban panoramas, and Dorothy Mead’s elemental compositions all return us to questions of how humans inhabit environments. Their works can be read as explorations of balance: between structure and flux, permanence and impermanence, human perception and natural process. These concerns echo in current debates around sustainability, where the challenge lies in recognising our entanglement with the natural world rather than standing apart from it.
Towards an Ecological Reading
Revisiting these works today allows us to consider them not only as art historical milestones but also as proto-ecological gestures. They resist the idea of the landscape as a postcard view and instead immerse us in the dynamism of earth and sky. In an age of climate change, this shift in perspective feels urgent. The Borough Road Collection offers a reminder that painting can attune us to the vitality of matter, the fragility of ecosystems, and the ethical questions of how we live within our environments.
The Archive as a Site of Reflection
As we look again at Bomberg and his circle, the collection and archive become more than a repository of mid-20th-century British painting. It is a place to think with these artists about landscape, ecology, and sustainability. Their brushstrokes invite us to ask: how might art help us to see the land not as backdrop, but as participant in our shared future?