Vorticism - 1914

Vorticism was a short-lived modernist movement in British art and poetry of the early 20th century.  It was partly inspired by Cubism. The movement was announced in 1914 in the first issue of BLAST, which contained its manifesto and the movement's rejection of landscape and nudes in favour of a geometric style tending towards abstraction. Ultimately, it was their witnessing of unfolding human disaster in World War I that "drained these artists of their Vorticist zeal". Vorticism was based in London but international in make-up and ambition.

Edward Wadsworth “Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool”

Vorticism combines the geometrical fragmentation of Cubism with Futurist-style machine-like imagery, in order to illustrate the dynamism of the modern world. Lewis considered Vorticism to be a genuinely independent alternative to both Cubism and Futurism. He was impressed by the strong structure of Cubist painting, but declared that it lacked life when compared to Futurist art. The latter, however, he criticized for its lack of structure. Vorticism was intended to combine the best elements of both. Although - optically - Vorticist painting can look very similar to Futurist works, philosophically they are relatively distinct. Because while movement was the key feature of Futurism, modern industrialization was the key motif of Vorticism, expressed in a 'dry', stripped-down, angular style.In a Vorticist painting modern life is shown as an array of bold lines and harsh colours drawing the viewer's eye into the centre of the canvas.

Wyndham Lewis, David Bomberg, Sir Jacob Epstein, EdwardWadsworth, William Roberts were representatives of Vorticism.

Dada - 1916

Dada was an artistic and literary movement that began in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland. It arose as a reaction to World War I, and the nationalism, and rationalism, which many thought had brought war about. Influenced by ideas and innovations from several early avant-gardes - Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism - its output was wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting and collage. Dada's aesthetic, marked by its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes, proved a powerful influence on artists in many cities, including Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New York and Cologne, all of which generated their own groups. The movement is believed to have dissipated with the arrival of Surrealist in France.

Key Ideas

Dada was born out of a pool of avant-garde painters, poets and filmmakers who flocked to neutral Switzerland before and during WWI. The movement came into being at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich in February 1916. The Cabaret was named after the eighteenth century French satirist, Voltaire, whose play Candide mocked the idiocies of his society. As Hugo Ball, one of the founders of Zurich Dada wrote, "This is our Candide against the times." So intent were members of Dada on opposing all the norms of bourgeois culture that the group was barely in favor of itself: "Dada is anti-Dada," they often cried. Dada art varies so widely that it is hard to speak of a coherent style. It was powerfully influenced by Futurist and Expressionist concerns with technological advancement, yet artists like Hans Arp also introduced a preoccupation with chance and other painterly conventions.

Dances at the Spring

Key artists: Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray

Man Ray

Man Ray (August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American modernist artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. He was best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, and he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called "rayographs" in reference to himself.

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