Page 32 - Studio International - April 1967

the autumn of 1913,19 the Bloomsburies and the Vorticists ism, the last section is in keeping with the violent hatred
worked side by side, producing very obviously futurist- of the past fostered by Futurism. The irreverent point of
cubist influenced furnishings. Such works as the decora- view voiced by Pound, Lewis, and Gaudier-Brzeska owes
tions for the Cadena Café are almost copies of Severini's a great deal to Futurist propaganda techniques, and the
1913 abstract experiments in light. The fabric designs, `Vortices' written by Gaudier-Brzeska, Lewis, and
designed and titled by Fry, such as Margery and Amenophis, Pound are coined in the hyperboles of Futurism just as
are directly influenced by Severini's Ballerina of 1913, the layout of Blast is based on that of the Futurists'
using the same overlapping cone-shaped devices. magazine Lacerba.
As for the influence on Vorticist painting, there is a Although Futurist philosophy, style, and techniques of
striking parallel between Lewis's 1912 Kermesse and appealing to or attacking the public all influenced the
Severini's 1912 Dancer, exhibited at the 1912 Sackville Vorticists, the British movement was much more than
show, both composing large arc-shaped forms in a `English Futurism'. The Italian movement became for
simple tripartite division on the canvas. It is primarily Vorticism what Cubism had been for the development
in Lewis's 1912 Timon series, exhibited as was the Ker- of Futurism. q
messe in Fry's Second Post-Impressionist exhibition, that
Lewis's 'futurism' is most evident. The mass of figures
drawn into the centre of the composition, and the single
curvilinear treatment of individual forms apparently are
derived from Carra's The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli 1 F. T. Marinetti, `Discours futuriste aux Anglais; prononcé
and Boccioni's States of the Mind: Those Who Stay, both aux Lyceum Club de Londres', and 'Ce Déplorable Ruskin',
exhibited in the March 1912 Sackville Gallery show. Le Futurisme (Paris, 1911), pp. 21-32; 33-48.
When the Vorticists turned to the non-representational 2 U. Boccioni to Victor Baer. Letter dated March 15, (re-
printed in Taylor, Futurism, p. 134).
phase (circa 1913-15 and 1919-20), there are only vague
3 Horace B. Samuel, 'The Future of Futurism', Fortnightly
suggestions, if any, of Futurism. It is probable, however,
Review, 93 (April 1, 1913), 726, 739.
that Balla's Vortex of an Automobile and his seven works
4 'Varia', Poetry and Drama, I, 3(September 1913), 202.
entitled Vortex (all of 1913 and illustrated in Archivi del 5 Polka and Vase, which had not been shown in London
Futurismo, nos. 65, 107-12) are sources, both thematically previously.
and technically, for the non-representational phase of 6 November 16 (Cabaret Club), November 17 (Poet's Club),
Vorticism. November 18 (Poetry Bookshop), November 19 (Clifford Inn
While Pound claimed that he had invented the term Hall), and November 20 (Dore Gallery) listed in F. T. Marin-
`Vorticism', many of the Vorticist ideas and the notion etti, Zang Tumb Tuum (Milan, 1914), i.
of 'The Vortex' as a theme in visual arts come from 7 Douglas F. Goldring, South Lodge (London, 1943), p. 64.
Futurism. For the term was not used before late 1913, 8 Nevinson, Paint and Prejudice, p. 60.
9 Letter from H. W. Nevinson to Blip ( ?), dated January
and there are many examples to show that the Vorticists
28, 1914. Cornell University Library.
were using the 'vortex' as an organizing motif in their
10 Frank Rutter, Art in My Time (London, 1933), p. 150.
work as early as 1912. Such a unique notion could only
Nevinson's work appeared in the Sixth A.A.A. Exhibition
be the result of the impression made by the Futurist
( July 1913).
exhibition of 1912 and Severini's one-man show of 1913 11 Frank Rutter, 'Foreword', Post-Impressionist and Futurist
upon the English avant-garde. Exhibit, London (Dore Gallery), October 1913.
The then emerging Vorticist aesthetic was the least 12 Nevinson, Paint and Prejudice, pp. 57-58.
altered by Futurism. There was no attempt by the 13 Vital English Art (handbill), Tate Gallery Research
Vorticists to use an elaborate colour theory, nor was Library. The Manifesto was also printed in Lacerba, II, 4
there a programme for any one kind of subject matter. ( July 1915).
The Vorticists rejected the philosophy of ambiente as they 14 'Futurism', the Observer, July 14, 1914.
15 Wyndham Lewis, 'The Melodrama of Modernity', Blast
rejected the Crocean and Bergsonian belief in the
( June 20, 1914), pp. 143-4.
supremacy of intuition; both philosophers received a
16 Letters of Ezra Pound, p. 101.
`blast' in the first issue of Blast (p. 21). There was no
17 Rothenstein, Modern English Painters, I, p. 287.
adherence to 'dynamic sensation' or 'Impressionistic 18 Several versions of On the Way to the Trenches exist. Another
primitivism'; and this will in part help to explain why in drawing dated 1914 is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum's
early 1913 Lewis was already being called `Cubist'.20 Print Collection, and the painting (Returning to the Trenches) was
The Vortex or Vorticism was an attitude as well as a reproduced in Colour, II, 6 ( July 1915), p. 215. Its present
visual configuration. The visual form of Vorticism, the location is unknown.
belief in the centripetal movement of each object, might 19 'So they went,' writes Nicholas Pevsner of the departure
well have come from Futurism, as I have attempted to of the Lewis coterie, 'and left the Omega deprived of some of its
best designers.' N. Pevsner, 'Omega', Architectural Review, XC,
show. Similarly, there is a parallel between the Vorticist
attitude toward the world and the anti-traditional think- (August 1941), p. 417.
29 A critic of the American Art News, 14 ( January 11, 1913)
ing of the Futurists. The Vorticist, unlike the Futurist,
was referring to the December 1912 Camden Town show.
stands at the still centre of civilization 'directed to revert-
`Wyndham Lewis would perhaps be more correctly described
ing to ancient canons of taste, and by rigid propaganda,
as a "Cubist",' the critic noted, Tor his work is an ingenious
scavenging away the refuse that has accumulated for the geometrical arrangement.' p. 5.
last century or so.'21 [Italics mine.] If the first part of 21 Wyndham Lewis, 'Notes for Catalogue', The Vorticist
Lewis's remark is not suited to the philosophy of Futur- Exhibition ( June 1915), Dore Gallery, London.