While the futurism movement was still happening, a new development was occurring in Britain, the rejection of landscape and nudes for geometric styles. This new movement was named Vorticism, though it was short lived (Lasting from 1914 to 1917) the style was individual yet drew from futurism as well as cubism. The avant-garde group expressed the dynamism of the modern world, using graphic lines and bold colours.
The group was founded by Percy Wyndham Lewis, Vorticism was launched with an issue of the magazine “Blast” which contained two aggressive pieces by Lewis ‘blasting’ what he considered to be the self-indulgent nature of British art and culture, he also wrote about the ideas of Vorticism ‘The New Vortex plunges to the heart of the Present – we produce a New Living Abstraction’. Other statements from the magazine include “Blast the years 1837 to 1900” referring to the struggle Britain faced in terms of politics and the industrial revolution, suggesting that the Vorticists want to erase the struggle to progress and focus on building towards the future.
The “Blast” magazine has strong links to Marinetti’s work, the graphic, bold lines can be reflected in the industrial buildings and the forms of the subjects, especially the faces have a similar style. The use of perspective is also important here, in Lewis’ work the perspective is multiple, some sections are drawn looking up, down and perhaps from the subjects point of view. This is similar to Marinetti’s as some buildings overlap and there are three versions of the same subject, creating movement and shape. These characteristics show Lewis taking inspiration from the Italian artist and bringing futurism to Britain, making the movement international.
The First World War brought vorticism to an end, although in 1920 Lewis made a brief attempt to revive it with “Group X”. The horrors of war brought about a rejection of the avant-garde in favour of traditional art making, known as return to order.
Alice Johnson 