1. BLAST! 1914 and 1915, Wyndham Lewis, ed.

2. Percival Wyndham Lewis  1882-1957  the men of 1914  unpopular  politics – questionable at best  artist, writer, thinker  The Enemy – and its pitfalls  Vorticism

3. Vorticism  derives from Futurism and Cubism  F. T. Marinetti – Thursday’s reading  dynamism  form  purity  line, plane, colour  content does not matter – non representative

4. p. 86, BLAST 2

5. Vorticism  So: What has Vorticism got to do with the War?

6. Vorticism “The Creditors” 1912

7. Vorticism “The Machine Age” 1916

8. Vorticism “The Menin Road” 1918

9. Vorticism “Battery Shelled” 1919

10. Vorticism “Mr. Wyndham Lewis as a Tyro” 1921

11. BLAST 1914  shocking, offensive, challenging, effrontery  young men, brash, arrogant, defiant  blasting away at what they disapprove  blessing what they approve  often in the same page  new poetry, new visual arts, new typography, new distribution, new aesthetics  To Hell with the Old (cf. Eliot, Pound, Aldington, …)

12. BLAST

17. Lewis on BLAST 1:  p. 85-6 in BLAST 2  get a load of his review of the 1 st number’s reception

18. BLAST 1915  the war number  after a year of war, things are slightly more restrained  people are gone, to the front – some dead  most notably Henri Gaudier-Brzeska whose sculptures were eminently vorticist

19. Gaudier- Brzeska “Head of Ezra Pound” 1914

20. Gaudier- Brzeska “Red Stone Dancer” 1913

21. Gaudier- Brzeska “Seated Woman” 1914

22. Let’s read a bit… What do you want to talk about?  nationality p.6, 15,  war and art p. 25, 72  Gaudier-Brzeska and Marinetti p. 26, 33  Aestheticism (decadence) p. 71  the war p. 73, 75,  BLAST and BLESS p. 92-3  design, typography, illustrations  “The Crowd Master” p. 94-102

23. Futurism  F. T. Marinetti (1876-1944)  Leader of Italian futurism  Aggressive, brash  Promoted machine, noise, violence, dynamics, war, speed, movement, youth  Toured England 1913, met Lewis and influenced a lot

24. Futurism Fortunato Depero, Skyscrapers and Tunnels (Gratticieli e tunnel), 1930

25. Futurism Goncharova, Cyclist

26. Futurism Goncharova, Cyclist Promotional Poster for Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (1927)

27. Manifesto for a NEW Art  Get into groups of four  Write me a manifesto for a new art in the style of Marinetti and/or Lewis  You can Blast and Bless things if you like  Whip up your sense of aggression, anger, outrage  Tell me how it is – and how it should be