Bomberg's drawings of 1935 of Ronda in southern Spain and of the Asturian mountains in the north are breakthrough works that exemplify his celebrated quest for the 'spirit in the mass'. As Bomberg explained: 'we have said that our search is towards the spirit in the mass. Many people have asked us a further definition. Words cannot give it; the answer lies in the content of the painting. That is our purpose. Our interest lies more in the mass than in the parts; More in movement than in the static; More in the plastic than in the decorativeOur awareness is both of sensation and direction'.1contrast to his practice as a painter, which had not yet reached the extraordinary freedom of his final years, Bomberg's drawing attained an unprecedented expressiveness during this seminal visit to Spain. Allowing the charcoal to bind round forms and to create great swathes of brooding intensity, Bomberg evokes rather than describes his forms. As well as giving such daring prominence to the properties of charcoal, Bomberg also gives the paper texture a new assertiveness. This is complemented by the choice of viewpoint that gives many of these drawings an abstract power. In The Bridge and Gorge, Ronda the famous bridge forms a focal point that spans the chasm between two bulky hillsides, uniting the small buildings that cling perilously to its summit. Yet it is the great rock face beneath them that dominates the drawing and gives it its raw strength, suggesting man's powerlessness before the forces of nature. In marked contrast, in The Bridge, Ronda Bomberg uses an oblique angle to draw attention to the architectural power of the bridge. The result is almost cathedral-like in its grandeur and celebrates the substantiality of the man-made.

1. David Bomberg, preface to the catalogue of the Third Annual Exhibition of the Borough Group, Archer Gallery, London, 1949