Jack Bilbo, David Zwirner

An exhibition of the eccentric, bohemian artist Jack Bilbo, Al Capone's one time body guard, arrives at the New York Gallery David Zwirner's London address this September

The eccentric artist Jack Bilbo once claimed to have worked as the gangster Al Capone’s bodyguard. This story is one of many weird and wonderful moments that define Bilbo as a legendary bohemian figure. As an artist whose work spanned four tumultuous decades in Western Europe during the mid-20th century, Bilbo is fascinating because he allows himself to be vulnerable and reveal his most intimate sexual and violent fantasies, while acting as a harsh social critic. In Bilbo’s words he was ‘an Artist, Author, Sculptor, Art Dealer, Philosopher, Psychologist, Traveller, and a Modernist Fighter for Humanity’. 

This exhibition at David Zwirner focuses particularly on Bilbo’s ink drawings from the 1940s, during which time he was living in London and running the Modern Art Gallery. This gallery space acted as a meeting place for German intellectuals and allowed Bilbo to exhibit the artists he revered like Pablo Picasso, Kurt Schwitters, and the nihilistic Dada movement. 

As a Jew growing up in 1920s Berlin, Bilbo’s work is marked by political satire and a dark humour that was spawned from his early childhood experiences. This is one reason why Bilbo has always identified himself as something of an outsider, a view shared by other German creatives such as George Grosz and John Heartfield. After his family’s theatre outfitting company was confiscated by the Nazi’s, Bilbo campaigned against the party before fleeing to Spain and then Britain. 

Make sure you google the monumental sculptures he made in his garden in Weybridge which were so poorly received by the local community that they were removed with dynamite after Bilbo had left.  Of these three sculptures, entitled Life, Devotion and Sanctuary, Bilbo had a secret hiding place inside one where he could hear all the comments from potential visitors.