# Vorticism and the English Avant-Garde [Citation Link](https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01ALLIANCE_UW/6psp7h/alma99107538180001451) [[William C. Wees]] *Wees, William C. Vorticism and the English Avant-Garde. University of Toronto Press, 1972.* ## Description Critical study of Vorticism, the short-lived English avant-garde movement founded by Wyndham Lewis in 1914 and named by Ezra Pound. Traces the group's formation out of the Rebel Art Centre, its manifestos and typography in the magazine *Blast: Review of the Great English Vortex*, and the paintings, drawings, and sculpture of Lewis, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, William Roberts, and others — positioning the movement between Cubist fragmentation and Futurist dynamism before its dissolution during World War I. ## Key Tags #vorticism #english-avant-garde ## Key Passages %% quoted excerpts with page numbers, one per bullet %% - "quote" (p.##) ## Notes by Chapter %% page not yet started — topics to cover based on the book's scope %% ### Origins and Formation Formation of the Vorticist group in London in 1914, growing out of the Rebel Art Centre and in reaction to both Marinetti's Futurism and Bloomsbury/Roger Fry aesthetics. ### Blast and the Manifestos The two issues of *Blast* (1914, 1915), their manifestos, aggressive typography, and polemical tone. ### Vorticist Visual Art Paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Wyndham Lewis, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, William Roberts, Edward Wadsworth, and Jessica Dismorr. ### Vorticist Poetry Ezra Pound's role in naming and promoting the movement, and Vorticist-adjacent poetry. ### Relation to Cubism and Futurism Vorticism's self-positioning between Cubist fragmentation and Futurist dynamism. ### Decline The movement's dissolution under the pressures of World War I. ## Details %% A more comprehensive personal reflection and collection of relevant notes, details, references, links %% ### Concepts and Theories - [[Avant Garde Film]] - %%Wees's later film scholarship (see [[Light Moving in Time]]) extends the visual-aesthetics approach he first developed here on the historic Vorticist avant-garde%% ### Creative and Technical Practices ### Related Individuals - [[Ezra Pound]] - coined the term "Vorticism" and served as the movement's chief publicist ## References ### Cited In %% Pages in this vault (210 / 220 / 230) that draw on this source %%