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Vorticism
Vorticism. An avant-garde British art movement launched in 1914; it was related to Cubism and Futurism and was mainly concerned with the visual arts, but it also embraced literature (its name was suggested by the American poet and critic Ezra Pound (1885–1972), to whom the vortex represented ‘the point of maximum energy’, an expression of the dynamism of modern life). Vorticism was highly aggressive in tone, celebrating movement and the machine, and attacking what was considered the complacency and sentimentality of contemporary British culture. It was short-lived, its vigour being dissipated by the First World War, but it had a powerful, revitalizing impact on British art. The central figure of the movement, as a theorist as well as an artist, was Wyndham Lewis, who edited its journal Blast (only two numbers appeared, in 1914 and 1915). He later claimed that ‘Vorticism…was what I, personally, did, and said, at a certain period’, but there was clearly a close similarity of style between his harsh, angular, mechanistic paintings and the work of several of his associates, including Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, William Roberts, and Edward Wadsworth, each of whom signed the Vorticist manifesto that appeared in the first number of Blast.
The Vorticists held only one exhibition, at the Doré Gallery, London, in June 1915. Apart from the formal members of the movement, the artists taking part included David Bomberg and Christopher Nevinson. Jacob Epstein was not included, but his work was reproduced in Blast and he is generally considered part of the movement. Several of the artists represented in the exhibition were now producing pure abstracts, and the show was far too advanced for the critics, who treated it as an incomprehensible joke. By this time the war was scattering the Vorticists ( Gaudier-Breszka had already been killed in action), and Lewis failed in his attempts to revive the movement after the war. |
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Cite this article
IAN CHILVERS. "Vorticism." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. IAN CHILVERS. "Vorticism." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O2-Vorticism.html IAN CHILVERS. "Vorticism." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O2-Vorticism.html |
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Vorticism
Vorticism. An avant-garde British art movement launched in 1914; it was related to Cubism and Futurism and was mainly concerned with the visual arts, but it also embraced literature (its name was suggested by the American poet Ezra Pound, to whom the vortex represented ‘the point of maximum energy’, an expression of the dynamism of modern life). Vorticism was highly aggressive in tone, celebrating movement and the machine, and attacking what was considered the complacency and sentimentality of contemporary British culture. It was short-lived, its vigour being dissipated by the First World War, but it had a powerful, revitalizing impact on British art. The central figure of the movement, as a theorist as well as an artist, was Wyndham Lewis, who edited its journal Blast (only two numbers appeared, in 1914 and 1915). He later claimed that ‘Vorticism…was what I, personally, did, and said, at a certain period’, but there was clearly a close similarity of style between his harsh, angular, mechanistic paintings and the work of several of his associates, including Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, William Roberts, and Edward Wadsworth, each of whom signed the Vorticist manifesto that appeared in the first number of Blast. The Vorticists held only one exhibition, at the Doré Gallery, London, in June 1915. Apart from the formal members, the artists taking part included David Bomberg and C. R. W. Nevinson. Jacob Epstein was not included, but his work was reproduced in Blast and he is generally considered part of the movement. Several of the artists represented in the exhibition were now producing pure abstracts, and the show was far too advanced for the critics, who treated it as an incomprehensible joke. By this time the war was scattering the Vorticists (Gaudier-Breszka had already been killed in action), and Lewis's attempts to revive the movement after the war were unsuccessful.
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Cite this article
IAN CHILVERS. "Vorticism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. IAN CHILVERS. "Vorticism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O3-Vorticism.html IAN CHILVERS. "Vorticism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 2003. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O3-Vorticism.html |
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Vorticism
Vorticism, an aggressive literary and artistic movement that flourished 1912–15; it attacked the sentimentality of 19th-cent. art and celebrated violence, energy, and the machine. The Vorticists, dominated by W. Lewis, included Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska, the painters C. R. Nevinson and Edward Wadsworth; they were associated with T. E. Hulme, F. M. Ford, and the sculptor Jacob Epstein. In the visual arts this revolutionary fervour was expressed in abstract compositions of bold lines, sharp angles, and planes. Blast: the Review of the Great English Vortex (1914), edited by Lewis, was an ambitious attempt to establish in England a magazine dedicated to the modern movement and to draw together artists and writers of the avant-garde. Its long lists of the blasted and blessed, its mixture of flippancy and rhetoric, and its provocative title and typography were designed to jolt the English out of their complacent insularity.
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Vorticism." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Vorticism." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Vorticism.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Vorticism." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Vorticism.html |
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vorticism
vorticism , short-lived 20th-century art movement related to futurism . Its members sought to simplify forms into machinelike angularity. Its principal exponent was a French sculptor, Gaudier-Brzeska . The movement, however, had its largest following in England, where Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and T. S. Eliot wrote about it.
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"vorticism." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "vorticism." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-vorticis.html "vorticism." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-vorticis.html |
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vorticism
vorticism British art movement. Derived from cubism and Italian futurism, it originated (1913) with Wyndham Lewis' attempt to express the spirit of the time in harsh angular forms derived from machinery. David Bomberg, Ezra Loomis Pound, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, and Jacob Epstein were also members of the movement. The term was coined by Ezra Pound.
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"vorticism." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "vorticism." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-vorticism.html "vorticism." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-vorticism.html |
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vorticism
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T. F. HOAD. "vorticism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "vorticism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-vorticism.html T. F. HOAD. "vorticism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-vorticism.html |
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