Vorticism and Futurism

Vorticism and Futurism

Research

12/01/15

This assessment uses the life drawings I have previously done and will continue to make to create something that will eventually be a 3D structure in the style of Vorticism, Futurism or both.

What is Vorticism?

Vorticism was a short lived art movement, formed in London, that was first announced during 1914, however was quickly dismissed with the first world war. The founder of this movement, Whyndam Lewis, tried to but failed in reviving the movement in the 1920's. It was an avant- garde group that aimed to create art that expressed dynamism in the modern world and the relationship between machine and the urban environment. Vorticism was partly inspired by Cubism and cubist fragmentation.

What is Futurism?

Futurism was a rather aggressive and liberating movement that started in 1909 in Italy. It was a movement that rebelled against the norm, rejected anything old and looked towards the future, as the past culture was seen as oppressive. The aim of this movement was to free Italy of it's museums containing old art, referring to them as 'countless cemeteries'. This movement celebrated the modern world of industry and technology. Umberto Boccioni helped to shape the aesthetic of this movement.

The Vortecists

Whyndam Lewis was deeply hostile towards the Futurists, and believed art before Vorticism was exhausted. He was an artist, writer and polemicist, and published a Vortecist manifesto in a magezine called 'BLAST'. Lewis was a very opinionated man, and so was pushing the Vortecist movement forwards. However, with the arrival of WW1, the Vortecist movement ended, as it was seen as too much of a grim reminder to the use of mechanised weapons used within the war, and how such weapons had killed many people the Vortecists knew or were related to.

'Red Duet'
1914

'Workshop'
1914-1915

Sir Jacob Epstein, was a sculpture and while not actually associated with the Vortecist movement, was tied into it due to his work with the relationship between man and machine. His most notable piece of work, 'The rock drill' was dismantled after WW1, However was replicated and was displayed in a Vortecist exhibition within the Tate in 2011.

'The Rock Drill'
1913-1915

Edward Wadsworth was directly associated with the Vortecist movement who was, as well as being a painter, was also an engraver of wood and copper. His work did not finish after WW1, however, as he continued to paint with a nautical theme afterwards. He was a signatory of the manifesto published in 'BLAST' 

'The Port'
1915

'Rotterdam'
Woodcut
1914

'BLAST magazine'
1914

The Futurists

Umberto Boccioni was a principle figure within the Futurist movement and was an influential Italian sculptor and painter. He drafted 2 Futurist manifestos in 1910 and 1912 that elevated the force and energy in contemporary life. This particular art movement amplified the speed, violence and machine age.

'We declare a new beauty... A beauty of speed... A racing motor car is more beautiful that the Victory of Samothrace'

'Dynanism of the human body'
1913

'Elasticity'
1912

'Unique forms of continuity in space'
1913

Filippo Tommaso was the founder of the Futurist movement and posted his manifestation on the cover of the Paris newspaper 'Le Figaro' within which he declared that art was 'Art, in fact, can be nothing but violence, cruelty and injustice'