David Bomberg (1890-1957)

To fulfil his commitment to the Zionist Organization to produce a number of works that they could use for propaganda purposes Bomberg executed a group of works that depict workers in the stone quarries. Stephanie Rachum writes, 'There were several such quarries in the Jerusalem area, producing stone for the budding building industry ... a number of drawings also exist. In Quarrying: Jewish Pioneer Labour [the present work] the energetic workers strain over an incision they have made in the hard rock. The triangular shapes of the overhead supports, bent bodies, and tents in the distance, set up a rhythmic repetition of form throughout. This drawing is the closest Bomberg came to a heroic depiction of pioneer labour' (see exhibition catalogue, David Bomberg in Palestine 1923-1927, op. cit., pp. 29-30).