Star Wars Fans Awaken

A fine collection of: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi action figures, vehicles and accessories, including Palitoy
A fine collection of: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi action figures, vehicles and accessories, including Palitoy

I am as excited about the release of the Last Jedi this weekend as I was as a boy when the original Star Wars trilogy came out.

In those early films George Lucas combined wonderful storytelling with breath taking visual effects set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”. His was a believable galaxy; where spaceships and robots carried the patina and dirt of far-off worlds; where chivalry and light sabres stood against blasters and the storm troopers of an evil empire in a battle between the light and dark sides of the Force. We felt a real connection with the characters.

Jabba the Hutt, the Rancor, Luke Skywalker, Boba Fett and Lando Calrissian with other characters from The Return of the Jedi
Jabba the Hutt, the Rancor, Luke Skywalker, Boba Fett and Lando Calrissian with other characters from The Return of the Jedi

Some critics complained that the story line of the first film in the new trilogy, The Force Awakens, was too close to the originals. However, I think the director J. J. Abrams was inspired to return to the roots of the franchise bridging the original trilogy to the new. The story telling was once again exceptional, the characters three-dimensional and the effects visually stunning. Daisy Ridley’s performance as Rey was beautifully crafted. It is tremendous to see the story centre around a female protagonist supported by characters old and new, with Harrison Ford as Han Solo and John Boyega as Finn to name but a few.

The Last Jedi, released on Thursday 14th December, has been directed by Rian Johnson. Trailers and interviews have left fans with more questions than answers. Who is the First Order’s Supreme Leader Snoke? Will Rey stand with the light side of the Force or will she join Kylo Ren on the dark side? Who were Rey’s parents? What role will Luke Skywalker play and who is the mysterious Rose? Will the Force finally be brought into balance? One thing is certain Rian Johnson has promised to surprise and shock the fans.

The Millennium Falcon with original box
The Millennium Falcon with original box

I was thrilled when Father Christmas brought me C-3PO, R2 D2, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader but my brother hit the jackpot when he was given the Millennium Falcon with Han Solo and Chewbacca.

I was delighted to see that the Star Wars fan’s excitement in the early toys and action figures illustrated remains undiminished. They realised hundreds of pounds at Toovey’s specialist Christmas toy sale. It was very evocative to see Luke’s X-wing Starfighter, the Millennium Falcon, an Imperial At-At Walker and the original characters. Entries for Toovey’s next specialist toy auction on Tuesday 20th March 2018 are being accepted from the beginning of January.

No doubt today’s Star Wars fans will be queuing up this Christmas for the latest action figures of Rey, BB-8, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, Finn, Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker, as well as First Order and Rebel Starfighters, Star destroyers and light sabres.

I am excitedly booking my Last Jedi tickets at an independent cinema near me as I write! I hope your Christmas parcels this year contain a Star Wars surprise. It remains to say “May the Force be with you.”

By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.

David Bomberg at Pallant House

David Bomberg, Ju - Jitsu, circa 1913, Tate © Tate, London 2017
David Bomberg, Ju – Jitsu, circa 1913, Tate © Tate, London 2017

Pallant House Gallery’s latest exhibition, Introducing Bomberg: A Master of British Art, provides the first large scale reassessment of this neglected British artist’s work in more than a decade. It considers the overarching influence of David Bomberg’s Jewish identity on his painting as he journeyed from radical abstraction to expressive, painterly realism.

The exhibition is the inspiration of Ben Uri Gallery curators, Sarah MacDougall and Rachel Dickson. It brings together work from the collections of Pallant House Gallery, The Ben Uri Gallery, Tate and others.

The show has a strong chronological narrative which places Bomberg’s paintings firmly in the context of his life and the times in which he lived.

David Bomberg was born in Birmingham in 1890. His parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants. He spent his formative years in London’s East End. There he worked alongside his fellow Jewish ‘Whitechapel artists’, Mark Gertler, Jacob Kramer, Clare Winsten and the poet-painter Isaac Rosenberg.

Bomberg studied at evening classes under the Camden Town Group leader, Walter Sickert, before attending the Slade. He was considered an innovative artist.

Bomberg was connected with the European artistic avant-garde. In 1914, together with the sculptor Jacob Epstein, he curated a Jewish section at the Whitechapel Art Gallery’s exhibition ‘Twentieth Century Art: A Review of the Modern Movement’. The abstract, Ju-Jitsu, illustrates the influence of European artists work and brilliantly captures Bomberg’s own fractured experience of life as the son of Polish immigrants.

David Bomberg, Ghetto Theatre, 1920, Ben Uri Collection © Ben Uri Gallery and Museum
David Bomberg, Ghetto Theatre, 1920, Ben Uri Collection © Ben Uri Gallery and Museum

Although Bomberg always distanced himself from them the influence of the English Vorticist movement can be seen in Ghetto Theatre. The vorticist’s cubist fragmentation of reality, with its hard edged imagery derived from the machine and urban environment, is apparent in the lines of seated figures and the austere theatre architecture. The painting also reflects the mood of the artist after his experiences in the trenches of the First World War.

In 1923 Bomberg travelled to Jerusalem where he painted topographically. Working en plein air he painted a series of realist landscapes including Jerusalem city.

David Bomberg, Ronda Bridge, 1935, Pallant House Gallery © The Estate of David Bomberg
David Bomberg, Ronda Bridge, 1935, Pallant House Gallery © The Estate of David Bomberg

In 1929 he visited Spain and would return in 1934/1935. These visits inspired a new vigour in his work. His oil Ronda Bridge depicts the gorge and crossing. It is dramatically portrayed, alive with movement. The heat and light of the scene is conveyed in his bold, expressive brushwork and use of colour. This phase of his work was curtailed by the tragic onset of the Spanish Civil War.

In the 1930s and 1940s Bomberg painted a series of searching self-portraits. These and a number of studies of his friends display an extraordinary intensity. The show concludes with Bomberg’s moving Last Self-Portrait from 1956, the year before he died.

The exhibition provides a strong and insightful narrative to accompany Bomberg’s visually striking work. That it redresses our understanding of this important British – Jewish artist, whose work was often overlooked during his own lifetime, is to be commended. Introducing Bomberg: A Master of British Art runs until 4th February 2018. For more information visit www.pallant.org.uk or telephone 01243 774557.

By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.