by gruseom on 8/22/18, 6:01 AM with 3 comments
by SuperPaintMan on 8/22/18, 2:49 PM
I'm just going to transcribe the first of the seven part portion of the manifesto here.
"[1] Beyond Action and Reaction we would establish ourselves.
[2] We start from opposite statements of a chosen world. Set up violent structure of adolescent clearness between two extremes.
[3] We discharge ourselves on both sides.
[4] 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.
[5] Mercenaries were always the best troops.
[6] We are Primitive Mercenaries in the Modern World
[7] Our Cause is NO-MANS.
[8] We set Humour at Humour's throat. Stir up Civil War among peaceful apes.
[9] We only want Humour if it has fought like Tragedy.
[10] We only want Tragedy if it can clench its side-muscles like hands on it's belly, and bring to the surface a laugh like a bomb."
Even as the war dragged on Lewis' work as a war painter would inform his works. Take a look at earlier Vorticist works and compared it to "A Battery Shelled", they're less abstract once the concrete reality of the trenches had affected the artists. It's an interesting shift that others involved or near the movement would mirror, a brief expenditure of energy followed by a burning out and attempt to return to normalcy. It's a shame Vorticism was such a small and short lived movement, but what can you do when a good number of your artists were jumping to join the fight and promptly got themselves killed like Brezeska? At least we can still get high on Pounds work and whatever was scrounged together to be documented (and not left in the back of a taxicab).
If you're looking for a good read please give BLAST and BLAST: War Number a read, they are truly amazing and underappreciated works and you may find something to take away from it. I'm extremely grateful to have picked up this particular dusty book from the middle of the stacks in Canada.
"A Battery Shelled": https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Lewis%2C_Perc...
"Blast (PDF link)": https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1143209523824858.pdf
"Blast: War Number": https://monoskop.org/images/c/c1/Blast_2.pdf
"Enemy Of The Stars (2015/200 views)": https://vimeo.com/129298317
by jhbadger on 8/22/18, 9:44 PM