Vorticism
Description
Vorticism was a London-based modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist manifesto in Blast magazine. Familiar forms of representational art were rejected in favour of a geometric style that tended towards a hard-edged abstraction. Lewis proved unable to harness the talents of his disparate group of avant-garde artists; however, for a brief period Vorticism proved to be an exciting intervention and an artistic riposte to Marinetti's Futurism and the Post-Impressionism of Roger Fry's Omega Workshops. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Wyndham Lewis
Founder, editor of BLAST, and chief theoretician of Vorticism who combined hard-edged geometry with aggressive machine energy.
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
Brilliant French-born sculptor who penned passionate Vorticist manifestos on direct carving before his tragic death in trenches of WWI at age 23.
Jacob Epstein
Master sculptor associated with the Vorticists whose robotic, mechanized masterpiece The Rock Drill embodied the movement's industrial violence.
David Bomberg
Radical painter closely linked to the Vorticist circle whose grid-based, geometric compositions captured the kinetic energy of urban crowds and machinery.
William Roberts
Young signatory of the Vorticist manifesto who painted dense, jagged compositions of urban laborers and dancers before serving as a war artist.
Helen Saunders
One of two female signatories of the Vorticist manifesto whose abstract, dynamic compositions were featured prominently in the 1915 Vorticist exhibition.
Jessica Dismorr
Signatory of the Vorticist manifesto who contributed abstract geometric paintings and poetry to BLAST magazine.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
The movement's name 'Vorticism' was coined by poet Ezra Pound in 1914, who declared that the 'vortex' was the point of maximum energy and motionless calm at the center of a swirling mechanical storm from which all artistic ideas rush forth.
↗ Source: britannica.com
The Vorticist movement was effectively crushed by the carnage of the First World War; brilliant sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was killed in combat at Neuville-Saint-Vaast in 1915 after writing his final manifesto on a wooden butt end of a rifle in the trenches.
↗ Source: tate.org.uk