Page 27 - Studio International - April 1967

Futurism

and the development of Vorticism

Douglas Goldring, editor of The Tramp, printed F. T. Marinetti's letter entitled 'Futurist Venice' in the
August 1910 issue of his magazine. What appeared to Goldring to be a 'bit of sport' opened British
painting to influences which eventually proved sources for the non-representational phase of Vorticism.

William Lipke

The events which marked the Futurist 'invasion' of that pretends to judge Italian things through the obses-
English soil from 1911 through the summer of 1914 are sion of what is English, I feel nauseated.'2
as intriguing as they are complex, forming part of the A little more than a year later, in April 1913, the
history of the Vorticist movement, culminating in the final Futurists made another attempt at converting the
yet half-hearted repudiation of Futurism by the British British painters and critics to the philosophy of ambiente.
avant-garde. This time it was a single-handed assault by Gino Severini,
who showed some thirty-four works, with accompanying
I remarks in the exhibition catalogue, at the Marlborough
As early as 1911, Marinetti had come to lecture before Gallery. Within the month, the first appreciative criticism
the Lyceum Club. His delivery was well-timed and to the of Futurism by the British critics was published. `It is
point. 'Don't you believe fervently,' he exclaimed, 'that essential to realize,' wrote Horace B. Samuel, 'that
the Puritans saved England, and that Chastity is the most [Futurist paintings] constitute an integral part of a living
important virtue?' Then, launching into his protest viva scheme which... has yet serious claims to be considered
voce, Marinetti chided his audience for praising Ruskin, as a substantial movement, artistic, literary, economic,
who 'with his hate of the machine, of gas, and electricity, sociological, and above all, human.... It is in essence a
is responsible for the odious cult of the past.'1 concentrated manifestation of the whole vital impulse of
It was not until March 1912 that the Futurist painters the twentieth century.'3
came to England. Fresh from the initial Futurist exhibi- The literati of London were quick to follow in Samuel's
tion in Paris (February 5-24), their works filled London's praise of Futurism. The September 1913 issue of Harold
Sackville Gallery. The works were not well received, and Monro's Poetry and Drama was devoted entirely to Futur-
Boccioni, who attended the London opening, somewhat ism, and Monro confidently wrote: 'we claim ourselves,
bitterly recorded five days after the opening: 'London, also, to be futurist.'4 Frank Rutter included the work of
beautiful, monstrous, elegant, well-fed, well-dressed but Severini in the October 1913 Post-Impressionist and Futurist
with brains as heavy as steaks.... When I think of all Exhibit: From Pissarro to Severini.5 In November 1913
the socialist, cooperativist, positivist, hygienist imbecility Marinetti returned to give five lectures in London,6 and
some five months later (April 1914) organized the im-
portant Dore Gallery's Futurist exhibit which included
C. R. W. Nevinson seventy-nine Futurist works. When the Dore exhibit
The Arrival 1913
Oil on canvas closed, the remaining Futurist activity in London in-
30 x 25 in. cluded a lecture by Marinetti on May 6, 1914 at the
Courtesy Tate Gallery, Vorticists' Rebel Art Centre, a 'Futurist Declamation' by
London
Marinetti on June 4 at the Dore Gallery, a June 12
lecture on 'Vital English Art' by Marinetti and the
English 'futurist' C. R. W. Nevinson, and a June 15
demonstration (Inventors and Constructors of NOISE-
Tuners') by Marinetti, Russolo and Piatti at the Albert
Hall.
Outside of Paris and Milan, the London art world
appeared at this point to be most responsive to the
Futurist declamations and exhibitions. It has been pointed
out how certain critics and poets embraced Futurism,
however vague their comprehension of the aesthetic
principles spelled out by the Italians. But what was the
reaction of the Vorticist painters to the Italian intrusion
upon the London art world ?

II
There was, to be sure, no love lost between the leader of
the Vorticist movement (Wyndham Lewis) and the
director of the Italian Futurist Movement. `Lewis,'