''Blast'' was the short-lived

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

of the

Vorticist Vorticism was a London-based Modernism, modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist mani ...

movement in Britain. Two editions were published: the first on 2 July 1914 (dated 20 June 1914, but publication was delayed)Black (2004), p. 100 and featured a bright pink cover, referred to by

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

as the "great MAGENTA cover'd opusculus"; and the second a year later on 15 July 1915. Both editions were written primarily by

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...

.Pfannkuchen (2005) The magazine is emblematic of the modern art movement in England, and recognised as a seminal text of pre-war 20th-century

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. The magazine originally cost 2/6.

Background

When the Italian futurist

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist, and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye d ...

visited London in 1910, as part of a series of well-publicised lectures aimed at galvanizing support across Europe for the new Italian

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

, his presentation at the Lyceum Club, in which he addressed his audience as "victims of ... traditionalism and its medieval trappings", electrified the assembled avant-garde. Within two years, an exhibition of futurist art at the

Sackville Gallery The Sackville Gallery was an art gallery at 28 Sackville Street, London, Sackville Street, London, best known for hosting the exhibition of Futurism, Futurist art in 1912. The gallery opened in May 1908.Pezzini, Barbara"London: an avant-garde sh ...

, London, brought futurism squarely into the popular imagination, and the press began to use the term to refer to any forward-looking trends in modern art. Initially galvanized by Marinetti's verve, Wyndham Lewis—like many other members of the London avant-garde—had become increasingly irritated by the Italian's arrogance. The publication of the English Futurist manifesto ''Vital English Art'', in the June 1914 edition of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'', co-written by Marinetti and the "last remaining English Futurist"

C. R. W. Nevinson Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (13 August 1889 – 7 October 1946) was an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. He is often referred to by his initial ...

, Lewis found his name, among others, had been added as a signatory at the end of the article without permission, in an attempt to assimilate the English avant-garde for Marinetti's own ends. On 12 June, during recitations of this manifesto and a performance by Marinetti of his poem ''The Battle of Adrianople'', with Nevinson accompanying on drums, Lewis,

T. E. Hulme Thomas Ernest Hulme (; 16 September 1883 – 28 September 1917) was an English critic and poet who, through his writings on art, literature and politics, had a notable influence upon modernism. He was an aesthetic philosopher and the 'father ...

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produc ...

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (né Gaudier; 4 October 1891 – 5 June 1915) was a French artist and sculptor who developed a rough-hewn, primitive style of direct carving. Biography Henri Gaudier was born in Saint-Jean-de-Braye near Orléans. In 1910, ...

Edward Wadsworth Edward Alexander Wadsworth (29 October 1889 – 21 June 1949) was an English artist, closely associated with modernist Vorticism movement. He painted coastal views, abstracts, portraits and still-life in tempera medium and works printed usin ...

, and five others roundly interrupted the performance with jeering and shouting. Wyndham Lewis wrote a few days later, "England practically invented this civilisation that Signor Marinetti has come to preach to us about". The final riposte came with the publication of ''Blast'' (later known as ''Blast 1''), written and illustrated by a group of artists assembled by Lewis from "a determined band of miscellaneous anti-futurists". The name ''Vorticism'' was coined by the poet Ezra Pound, a close friend of Lewis and the group's main publicist. Writing to

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

in April 1914, Pound described the magazine in ambiguous terms: "Lewis is starting a new Futurist, Cubist, Imagiste Quarterly ... I cant tell, it is mostly a painters' magazine with me to do the poems". By July, the magazine had a name, a movement to support, and a typographic style, and it had forged a distinctly English identity, confident enough to praise Kandinsky, question

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, and openly mock Marinetti.

Editions

''Blast 1'' was edited and largely written by Wyndham Lewis with contributions from Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska, Epstein, Spencer Gore, Wadsworth, and

Rebecca West Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...

and included an extract from Ford Madox Hueffer's novel ''The Saddest Story'', better known by its later title ''The Good Soldier'' (published under his subsequent pseudonym,

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals '' The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...

). The first edition was printed in

folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

format, with the oblique title ''Blast'' splashed across its bright pink soft cover. Inside, Lewis used a range of bold typographic innovations to engage the reader, that are reminiscent of Marinetti's contemporary

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct me ...

such as

Zang Tumb Tumb ''Zang Tumb Tumb'' (usually referred to as ''Zang Tumb Tuuum'') is a sound poetry, sound poem and Concrete poetry, concrete poem written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian futurism (art), futurist. It appeared in excerpts in journals between ...

. Rather than conventional serif fonts, some of the text is set in sans-serif "grotesque" fonts. The opening twenty pages of ''Blast 1'' contain the Vorticist manifesto, written by Lewis and signed by him, Wadsworth, Pound, William Roberts,

Helen Saunders Helen Saunders (4 April 1885 – 1 January 1963) was an English painter associated with the Vorticist movement. Biography Helen Saunders (pronounced ''Saːnders'') was born in Bedford Park, Ealing, London. She studied at the Slade School of A ...

, Lawrence Atkinson,

Jessica Dismorr Jessica Stewart Dismorr (3 March 1885 – 29 August 1939) was an English painter and illustrator. Dismorr participated in almost all of the avant-garde groups active in London between 1912 and 1937 and was one of the few English painters of the ...

, and Gaudier-Brzeska. Epstein chose not to sign the manifesto, although his work was featured. There is also a (positive) critique of

Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

's ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art'', a faintly patronising exhortation to

suffragettes A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

not to destroy works of art, a review of a London exhibition of

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

woodcuts, and a last dig at Marinetti by Wyndham Lewis:

The Manifesto

The manifesto is primarily a long list of things to be 'Blessed' or 'Blasted'. It starts: # Beyond Action and Reaction we would establish ourselves. # We start from opposite statements of a chosen world. Set up violent structure of adolescent clearness between two extremes. # We discharge ourselves on both sides. # We fight first on one side, then on the other, but always for the SAME cause, which is neither side or both sides and ours. # Mercenaries were always the best troops. # We are primitive Mercenaries in the Modern World. # Our Cause is NO-MAN'S. # We set Humour at Humour's throat. Stir up Civil War among peaceful apes. # We only want Humour if it has fought like Tragedy. # We only want Tragedy if it can clench its side-muscles like hands on its belly, and bring to the surface a laugh like a bomb. The subjects either 'Blasted' or 'Blessed' depended on how they were seen by the fledgling Vorticists. Among them were the leaders of the rival avant-garde grouped about

Roger Fry Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developme ...

and the

Bloomsbury set The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Stra ...

, as well as the literary leaders of the past. Thus the "Purgatory of

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

" is named for being the place to which

Algernon Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

had retired into respectability. Among the Blessed are seafarers because "they exchange...one element for another" (p. 22) and the hairdresser who "attacks Mother Nature for a small fee.... ndtrims aimless and retrograde growths" (p. 25).

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a caricaturist. He became an influential art teacher. He was one of the first British arti ...

, the

Slade Professor of Fine Art The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art and art history at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and University College, London. History The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collecto ...

, had the unique honour of being both 'Blessed' and 'Blasted'. The first edition also contained many illustrations in the Vorticist style by

, Lewis and others. The second edition, published on 20 July 1915, contained a short play by Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot's poems ''Preludes'' and ''Rhapsody on a Windy Night''. Another article by Gaudier-Brzeska entitled ''Vortex (written from the Trenches)'' further described the vorticist aesthetic. It was written whilst Gaudier-Brzeska was fighting in the First World War, a few weeks before he was killed there.

World War I and the end of Vorticism

Thirty-three days after ''Blast 1'' was published, war was declared on Germany. The First World War would destroy vorticism;Vorticism, an essay by Richard Cork, Oxford Art Online both Gaudier-Brzeska and T. E. Hulme were killed at the front, and Bomberg lost his faith in modernism. Lewis was mobilised in 1916, initially fighting in France as an artillery officer, later working as a war artist for the Canadian Government. He tried to re-invigorate the

after the war, writing to a friend that he intended to publish a third edition of ''Blast'' in November 1919. He organised an exhibition of avant-garde artists called ''Group X'' at Heal's Gallery in March–April 1920, and later published a new magazine, ''The Tyro'', of which only two issues appeared. The further issue of ''Blast'' failed to appear, and neither of the other two ventures managed to achieve the momentum of his pre-war efforts. Richard Cork writes:

Public collections

Both editions have been reprinted a number of times and are shortly to be made available again by Thames and Hudson; original copies are in the collections of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

, Chelsea College,

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

Special Collections and others. The

Fundación Juan March The Fundación Juan March is a foundation established in 1955 by Juan March, who was Spain's richest man. The foundation produces exhibitions as well as concert and lecture series. Its headquarters in Madrid houses a library devoted to contempora ...

launched an exhibition in Madrid (from 10 Feb 2010 through 16 May 2010), ''Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)'', publishing a semi-facsimile edition (translated into Spanish) of ''Blast'' No.1 and an edition of ''Timon of Athens''. The

Nasher Museum of Art The Nasher Museum of Art (previously the Duke University Museum of Art) is the art museum of Duke University, and is located on Duke's campus in Durham, North Carolina, United States. The Nasher, along with Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art and Pr ...

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

held an exhibition entitled ''The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914–18'' from 30 September 2010, through 2 January 2011.Nasher Museum
Retrieved 17 September 2010

Facsimile editions

* 1982. Santa Rosa:

Black Sparrow Press Black Sparrow Press is a New England based independent book publisher, known for literary fiction and poetry. History Black Sparrow was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1966 by John Martin in order to publish the works of Charles Bukowski ...

. . * 2009. London:

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

. . * 2010. Madrid:

. . With texts by Kevin Power and Paul Edwards. Translated into Spanish and annotated by Yolanda Morató.

Notes

References

* Black, Jonathan (2004). ''Blasting the Future: Vorticism and the Avant-Garde in Britain 1910–20''. Philip Wilson Publishers. * Lewis, Wyndham ed. (1914) ''Blast, issue 1''. London: Bodley Head. * Lewis, Wyndham ed. (1915) ''Blast, issue 2''. London: Bodley Head. * Lyon, Janet (1999). '' Manifestoes: Provocations of the Modern''. Cornell University Press. .
Excerpt at Google Books
* Pfannkuchen, Antje (2005). ''From Vortex To Vorticism: Ezra Pound's art and science''. Online vi

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