2007, Volume 5, Number 1
Vorticism
“Intrinsic beauty is in the Interpreter and Seer, not in the object or content.”-Blast (Lewis 899-920)
Vorticism was a British art movement that came out of the early 1900s. It was very accepting of modern ideas in science and technology and in fact even found inspiration in these new ideas and incorporated them into their works. These works ranged from writing to painting to sculpture and at least one of each art form was supported by one of the main Vorticists. Ezra Pound was a writer, Wyndham Lewis was both a writer and painter, and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska a sculptor. With these three forming the core, plus a handful of others, Vorticism came to be an art and literary movement finding inspiration in both science and technology.
The term vortex has its roots in both old and then modern science. It comes from the pre-Socratic doctrine that the four elements were formed as they rotated in a vortex (Materer 15). Pound liked this word and idea as it suggested to him something energetic and dynamic, as well as unrelenting--pretty much everything he and his fellow Vorticists wanted to encapsulate. In fact, the vortex was Pound’s answer to the quark1 of modern physics. The quark being the fundamental unit of matter, (quarks making up both protons and neutrons which then make up the nucleus of an atom) Pound sought to find what he considered the fundamental unit of aesthetics. Upon deciding on this term, Pound was quite pleased with himself. “It is not merely knowledge of technique or skill, it is intelligence and knowledge of life, of the whole of it, beauty, heaven, hell, sarcasm, every kind of whirlwind of force and emotion. Vortex. That is the right word, if I did find it myself” (Albright 162). What Pound found most intriguing was that the pattern of a vortex was found in seemingly such disparate objects which science had discovered. Examples of such objects would be spiral galaxies, or spiral nebulae as they were called at the time (and in particular the Andromeda galaxy, which can be seen with the naked eye on relatively clear and dark nights) and the human DNA (which of course takes the shape of the double helix). And although Pound may not have known about the exact structure of DNA, he had read a claim by Allen Upward in his novel New Word that hinted at something remarkably close to it. He “claimed the ‘fair probability’ that organic life in Earth sprang from ‘minute cosmic individuals, endowed with energy of their own, similar in origin and character to that manifested in the rotary or the vertical motion of the planets’” (Materer 16).
Wyndham Lewis was both a writer and painter who found inspiration in much of science and technology as well. In fact, he founded and contributed to the movement’s journal entitled Blast. One of his contributions is his play Enemy of the Stars, which was very much inspired by the heavens above. The play was inspired by the binary star Algol (in the constellation of Perseus). A binary star is actually a composite of two stars that orbit each, or a little more correctly, orbit a common center of mass; but in the case of Algol, the two stars are oriented such that from our line of sight, the two stars eclipse one another on a regular basis. In fact, one full cycle can be watched in just under three days. So Lewis used this idea of an eclipsing binary star in his play. The protagonist’s name is Arghol, who embodies the artist (who is always misunderstood) and is eventually blacked out. Rather than concerning itself with realistic or human characters, the play brings forth the conflict of the abstract forces of creation and destruction. As much as the Vorticists embraced much of modern physics, they also embraced much of the machinery and industrialization of the time, as is seen from the following passage:
The Vorticists did not deny that the landscapes created by industrialism were generally hideous. But the Vortex would sweep up this ugliness, blast it to pieces, and assemble it in beautiful painted forms. In Blast, no. 1, Lewis writes that ‘a man could make just as fine an art in discords, and with nothing but ugly trivial and terrible materials, as any classic artist did with only beautiful and pleasant means.’ (Materer 26) And one certainly sees this in much of the art of the time as displayed in the following pictures.
industrialism was not only accepted by the Vorticists, but it inspired them as well. All of these paintings have a very hard, jagged, strong, and bold feel to them which would be apparent in much of the machinery and architecture of the industrialist age. In Red Duet, what we see is that the “Vorticists admired the power, the hardness, and even the brutality of machine forms” (Materer 87). The painting depicts an ambiguous cityscape which becomes apparent when we notice the bold vertical lines running parallel to each other, resembling towering buildings. In Vorticist Composition, we again see very bold lines and sharp angles. But also, we see fairly ominous forms leaning to one side that “look like tottering architectural structures”. (Saunders) If a sense of movement seems to pervade the painting as well, it’s because of Lewis’s use of “vertiginous, diagonal lines, which epitomise Lewis’s Vorticist style.” (Saunders). From these paintings as well as others of his, we see Lewis was consistently interested in the theme of a modern metropolis (Saunders). Indeed, these both look like a vortex swept up some ugliness, blasted it to countless unrecognizable pieces, and somehow reassembled it into beautiful and daring art.
While Vorticism inspired many writings and paintings, aspects and themes of Vorticism can be seen in sculpture as well. The last key Vorticist was a French sculptor by the name of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Many of his sculptures are very abstract but still depict recognizable figures. In fact, many of the subjects he depicts are reduced to their essential elements, just enough so one can recognize the figure as shown below.
FIGURE
Gaudier, Bird Swallowing Fish (1914)
Gaudier, Red Stone Dancer (1913)
In Bird Sawllowing Fish, a relationship that is normally predator/prey, is depicted here as practically a stalemate. “He [Brzeska] has selected the moment of deadlock, when each party is still struggling for survival, and the outcome of this stalemate is still undecided” (Edwards 46). The bird and the fish come together at a very sharp angle to a “maximum point of energy”, an idea that is very “Vorticist-esque.” While the bird is normally the predator, in this situation the fish (which looks almost torpedo-like in nature) is coming with full force to the opening of the bird’s mouth. The bird’s eyes seem to be almost straining as it’s trying to find room for this highly aggressive creature. “Instead of swallowing, the bird could actually be choking, gorged with the outsize dimensions of a prey he was unwise to chase” (Edwards 46). The sculpture, although modeled in plaster, was cast in gunmetal, which could not be more appropriate for showing how Brzeska “reconciled his dual involvement with nature and the machine” (Edwards 46). As we see, the depictions of these creatures are very reminiscent of World War I, which looked inevitable by the spring of 1914 and broke out in July of that year.
Red Stone Dancer, as well, has many aspects of Vorticism in it. Ezra Pound, with whom Gaudier was good friends, summed it up best in his writings. We have the triangle and the circle asserted, labled [sic] almost, upon the face and right breast. Into these so-called ‘abstractions’ life flows, and the circle moves and elongates into the oval, it increases and takes volume in the sphere or hemisphere of the breast.
The triangle moves toward organism, it becomes a spherical triangle (the central life-form common to both Brzeska and Lewis). These two developed motifs work as themes in a fugue. We have the whole series of spherical triangles, as in the arm over the head, all combining and culminating in the great sweep of the back and shoulders, as fine as any surface in all sculpture. The ‘abstract’ or mathematical bareness of the triangle and circle are fully incarnate, made flesh, full of vitality and of energy. The whole formseries ends, passes into stasis with the circular base or platform (Edwards 42).
FIGURE
Gaudier, Ornament/Toy (1914)
Although both of these sculptures contain Vorticist ideas in them, it was Brzeska’s sculpture Ornament/Toy (1914) that best exemplified Vorticism. At first glance, this seems like it might appear in one of Lewis’s paintings mentioned earlier with the hard lines and sharp angles with an occasional “roundness” thrown in. Presented in this sculpture can also be seen a cold, rigid, militant figure standing stiff and erect, and “its sharp edges seem ready to tear their way through any struggle” (Edwards 47). This image is aided by the rounded portion about half way up which could easily resemble the spine of a human figure. Ornament/Toy “could almost be a threedimensional statement of Vorticism’s most war-like impulses” (Edwards 47).
The last sculpture in which we see machinery and technology in Vorticism is Rock Drill by Jacob Epstein. This sculpture was very much inspired by the machinery of the day and proved to be highly controversial.
FIGURE
Epstein, Rock Drill (1915)
Although not one of the key Vorticists, Epstein was a Vorticist both in mind and spirit during Vorticism’s height as displayed by this sculpture. In constructing this piece, Epstein decided to use an actual rock drill as part of the entire presentation. Initially, the whole thing looked like something from a movie set in the distant future (even by today’s standards). As is apparent, Epstein was fascinated by the heavy and strong machinery of the time; therefore, something capable of exerting the forces and destruction of a rock drill was captivating to him. The actual use of a machine in a sculpture was practically unheard of at the time and epitomizes Vorticism inspired by technology and machinery. The seemingly futuristic figure standing on the drill is commentary from Epstein on the dehumanizing affect of machines. Epstein’s belief was that the machine age was “transforming humanity into a race of armoured and rigidly constructed figures” (Ewards 55). And even though initially people didn’t see it (Rock Drill) as such, it later became a vivid reminder of war. Both the menacing figure and the powerful, aggressive piece of machinery upon which it stands were reminiscent of other inventions of the time like the rapid-fire machine gun which was capable of true devastation. Ultimately, Rock Drill was something that inspired visions of horror; later versions of the sculpture no longer contained the actual piece of machinery and the body was shown from just the waist up.
The British avant-garde art & literary movement known as Vorticism is seen by many as the only significant British art movement of the 20th century. As such, it had a huge impact on not only the paintings and literature of the time, but on the sculptures as well, using inspiration from (and acceptance of) both the science and technology of the times.
Footnote
1. The term quark actually came from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (a high text of Modern Literature) when physicist Murray Gell-Mann saw it in a poem (in the novel) that starts off “Three quarks for Muster Mark!”.
WORK CITED
Albright, Daniel. Quantum Poetics. 1st. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Edwards, Paul. Blast Vorticism 1914-1918. 1st. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2000.
Lewis, Wyndham. “Blast.” The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Ed. Jahan Ramazani. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. [Is this citation correct?]
Materer, Timothy. Vortex. 1st. UK: Cornell University Press Ltd., 1979.
Rosenquist, Rod. “London, literature, and BLAST: the vorticist as crowd master.” www.flashpointmag.com. 8 Dec 2006 .
Saunders, Ethel M.. “Vorticist Composition 1915.” Tate Online. Sep 2004. 8 Dec 2006 .
This paper was written for ENG464: Modern Literature. The assignment was a research paper.