Execution in a Canyon

Like many of the other artists represented in this exhibition, Roberts, a native of greater London, studied at the Slade School. Very precocious, he won several prizes for his figure drawings when still in his teens. This example relates in subject matter and technique to other wash drawings from the period immediately before his becoming involved with Vorticism. Roberts subsequently acknowledged the influence of the Cubist compositions of his contemporary, David Bomberg, but this work already reveals in its stylization of forms his familiarity with modernism as well as his artistic promise at 18. The elongated figures dramatically positioned in a canyon illuminated by a shaft of light are not explained but hint at some narrative, perhaps a religious subject. Like many of his contemporaries, Roberts also became an Official War Artist. Following the war, while still part of the avant-garde, his figurative work became increasingly more stylized in his use of tubular, but recognizable human forms.