The British artistic movement called Vorticism, a mixture of Futurism and Cubism, lasted from 1912 to 1915, and was founded by British painter Wyndham Lewis in 1914. It was an arrogant movement, with Lewis considering it’s few members to be of “Anglo-Saxon genius”, which was a somewhat Fascist attitude. The few artists included in the movement were, as with the Futurists, concerned with the machine, but rather than worship it in the Futurist fashion, they recognised that it was something to be wary of. The best-known Vorticists were Lewis, the sculptor Jacob Epstein, Edward Wadsworth, and the poet Ezra Pound.

The two Vorticist manifestoes were published in the Vorticist newspaper, Blast, edited by Wyndham Lewis, the first in the summer of 1914 and the second in 1915. The great influence that Filippo Marinetti had on the Vorticists (and particularly Lewis) was also evidenced in this newspaper.

Vorticism was very much influenced by Futurism, which was “essentially an acceleration of successive images, seen simultaneously, across a very shallow plain”, as can be seen in Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase. Vorticism took the same idea and extended it into depth, thereby creating an intense, inrushing perspective - a vortex. Hence the name “vorticism”.

Filippo Marinetti wrote manifestoes for Futurism, and Wyndham Lewis took up many of Marinetti’s notions. Lewis was attracted especially to the mechanism of modern war, which can obviously be associated with the machinery of the time. Because the machine was the focus of Futurism and Vorticism, the mechanism of war provided great inspiration, and much exciting subject matter for the artists to consider. For example, machines were seen as labour-saving devices, and the possibilities seemed endless – a notion that was at once exhilarating and fearsome. Some concentrated on their fears for the future, fears which led to imagining such outcomes as whole armies of robotic soldiers standing in the place human soldiers had previously occupied. Hence, modern-day war was a very important factor for both Futurists and Vorticists. While the Futurists glorified war, the Vorticists had cautious respect for it.

The Futurists had eagerly looked to the future, imagining what wonderful things would happen concerning the machine, and speculating as to how the present-day restrictions and rules could be replaced and discarded to make room for better ones. The Vorticists shared the Futurists’ disgust with conservative academism, but they departed from Futurist ideas by looking ahead in time with fear. They admired the machine for a different reason, appreciating the awesome power of the machine and believing that it could make the future very bleak for humanity. They recognised it as a technological weapon able to destroy sentimentality, and moreover to destroy humanity by gradually taking on every-day tasks normally performed by humansbeings. Soon humans would lose their purpose, with machines standing in their stead.

This fear of and respct for roboticism was expressed by Vorticists through their art. Jacob Epstein’s famous sculpture The Rock Drill (1913-14, plaster of paris), depicts a mechanomorph preparing to activate a piece of machinery, the kind of task that had always been carried out by human beings. The Vorticists, as seen in the sculpture, feared that such tasks would be overtaken by robots. There is an unborn (and presumably human) foetus within the mechanomorph’s abdomen, and its head is lowered in resignation and fear of the shattering power of the rock drill. Epstein’s installation is a composite of things, and it is tinged with apprehension and tension. It captures the possible danger posed by the piece of machinery. The Rock Drill was the most celebrated out of all Vorticist artworks.

Wyndham Lewis is not considered to be the most important Vorticist, and was described as being “his own best publicist”. Through Blast, and other means, he managed to promote and advertise his work more widely than that of any other artist. In exhibitions, other Vorticists’ works were often unfairly relegated to positions inferior to that of his own paintings.

Vorticism as a movement was the next step in the evolution of twentieth-century art after Futurism. Futurism evoked interest in the machine, and Vorticism realised the potential dangers of the subject matter that had at first seemed so exciting and beautiful. Vorticists took advantage of the work of their forerunners to extend and expand, and as a result of their exploration they made an important contribution to modern art.

 

© Dictynna1997.