Book: Vorticism 1914-1918, by Paul Edwards. Thoughts and Interpretations

Edwards, Paul. (2000) Vorticism 1914-1918 - Ashgate Publishing Limited, England 

Recently I have been continuing my investigations into art movements, previously I had looked at De Stijl as I was interested in the concerns that were being explored within geometric abstraction. This interest has seemed to have continued as lately I have been reading into Vorticism from the book listed above as well as a few other sources. 

From my own understanding so far, Vorticism was a very short lived art movement originating in the UK. It began in 1914 and was only around for four years when in 1918 the movement ended. From what I gathered from the book, I think they were only around so shortly because of the outbreak of war at that time. I will talk about that a bit later on.

A variety of artists including a poet helped to shape this group during its short time, for example members included the writer and poet Ezra Pound, painters such as Wyndham Lewis, Edward Wadsworth, Jessica Dimorr and sculptors such as Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier.

This movement seemed to have clear ambitions and was equally concerned with promoting its ideas to a wider public. It was a...

"... a genuine avant-garde movement having its own identifiable form of geometric abstraction and its own vibrant and aggressive magazine, Blast."(Edwards, Paul.  2000:9)

From what I understand of the movement is that people involved were influenced by the world around them at that time. The world was undergoing changes, new technologies were being invented such as fast transport and heavy industry, in tern  the world was experienced differently than what had gone before. It seems as though the members involved reflected this new experience of the modern age through their art work, see (Figure 1 and 2) for example.

(Figure 1) Jacob Epstein, Rock Drill, 1913-15 (reconstruction 1974), plaster and drill

(Figure 2) Edward Wadsworth, Dry Docked for Scaling and Painting, 1918, woodcut on paper

From looking at (Figure 1 and 2) I get the impression that these members saw a new future and they perhaps sought out a new type of visual model in which to contribute towards change and progress and humanitys relationship with industry and the machine age.

"The modern world is shaped by the industrial process, which is the main subject of Vorticist art." (Edwards, Paul.  2000:19)

 The book also mentions that the Vorticist's....

"...favoured the ideas of energy, purity, clarity of thought, hardness and power. This cool detachment placed the mechanical and geometric ahead of the organic and the naturalistic." (Edwards, Paul.  2000:19-20) 

So it seems the Vorticist's were in effect praising this new age, perhaps the machine age become their ideology, something they thought could improve or benefit humanity and drive us into the future. Maybe their art work was one way in which to assert this notion onto the eyes of the viewer and then perhaps the magazine aided this and their ideas.

As mentioned previously Vorticism was a short lived movement and I get the impression that this was because of the out brake of the first World War. They probably realised the potential and capabilities machines offered in the ability to do quite the opposite of benefiting people. It could and was harnessed to turn against people who created them for inhuman ends. Perhaps then they no longer saw a bright future between man and machine but rather the chaos and destruction it could and did achieve.

Bibliography

Edwards, Paul. (2000) Vorticism 1914-1918 - Ashgate Publishing Limited, England

List of Ilustrations

(Figure 1) Jacob Epstein, Rock Drill, 1913-15 (reconstruction 1974), plaster and drill.
 Edwards, Paul. (2000) Vorticism 1914-1918 - Ashgate Publishing Limited, England p55

(Figure 2) Edward Wadsworth, Dry Docked for Scaling and Painting, 1918, woodcut on paper. Edwards, Paul. (2000) Vorticism 1914-1918 - Ashgate Publishing Limited, England p38