Blast (magazine)

This article is about the British literary maga-zine, not to be confused with the San Franciscoanarchist magazine, The Blast (magazine).

Blast was the short-lived literary magazine of theVorticist movement in Britain. Two editions were pub-lished: the rst on 2 July 1914 (dated 20 June 1914, butpublication was delayed)[1][2] and published with a brightpink cover, referred to by Ezra Pound as the great MA-GENTA cover'd opusculus"; and the second a year lateron 15 July 1915. Both editions were written primarily byWyndham Lewis. [3] The magazine is emblematic of themodern art movement in England,[4] and recognised asa seminal text of pre-war 20th-century modernism.[5][6]The magazine originally cost 2/6.

1 BackgroundWhen the Italian futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinettivisited London in 1910,[7] as part of a series of well-publicised lectures aimed at galvanizing support acrossEurope for the new Italian avant-garde, his presenta-tion at the Lyceum Club, in which he addressed hisaudience as victims of .... traditionalism and itsmedieval trappings,[8] electried the assembled avant-garde. Within two years, an exhibition of futurist art atthe Sackville Gallery, London, brought futurism squarelyinto the popular imagination, and the press began to usethe term to refer to any forward-looking trends in modernart.Initially galvanized by Marinettis verve, WyndhamLewislike many other members of the London avant-gardehad become increasingly irritated by the Ital-ians arrogance.[3] The publication of the English Futuristmanifesto Vital English Art, in June 1914 edition of TheObserver, co-written by Marinetti and the last remain-ing English Futurist C. R.W. Nevinson, Lewis found hisname, among others, had been added as a signatory at theend of the article without permission, in an attempt to as-similate the English avant-garde forMarinettis own ends.On 12 June, during recitations of thismanifesto and a per-formance by Marinetti of his poem The Battle of Adri-anople, with Nevinson accompanying on drums, Lewis,T. E. Hulme, Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska,Edward Wadsworth, and ve others roundly interruptedthe performance with jeering and shouting.[9] WyndhamLewis wrote a few days later, England practically in-vented this civilisation that Signor Marinetti has come to

The cover of the second,War Number, edition of Blast featuringa woodcut by Wyndham Lewis's in the vorticist style

preach to us about.[10]

The nal riposte came with the publication of Blast (laterknown as Blast 1), written and illustrated by a group ofartists assembled by Lewis from a determined band ofmiscellaneous anti-futurists.[3] The name Vorticism wascoined by the poet Ezra Pound, a close friend of Lewisand the groups main publicist.[11] Writing to James Joycein April 1914, Pound described the magazine in am-biguous terms: Lewis is starting a new Futurist, Cu-bist, Imagiste Quarterly .... I cant tell, it is mostly apainters magazine with me to do the poems.[3] By July,the magazine had a name, a movement to support, and atypographic style, and it had forged a distinctly Englishidentity, condent enough to praise Kandinsky, questionPicasso,[12] and openly mock Marinetti.

2 EditionsBlast 1was edited and largely written byWyndham Lewiswith contributions from Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska, Ep-stein, Spencer Gore, Wadsworth, and Rebecca West and

1

2 3 WORLD WAR I AND THE END OF VORTICISM

included an extract from FordMadox Hueers novel TheSaddest Story, better known by its later title The Good Sol-dier (published under his subsequent pseudonym, FordMadox Ford). The rst edition was printed in folio for-mat, with the oblique title Blast splashed across its brightpink soft cover. Inside, Lewis used a range of bold typo-graphic innovations and tricks to engage the reader, thatare reminiscent ofMarinettis contemporary concrete po-etry such as Zang Tumb Tumb.The opening twenty pages of Blast 1 contain the Vor-ticist manifesto, written by Lewis with assistance fromPound and signed by Lewis, Wadsworth, Pound, WilliamRoberts, Helen Saunders, Lawrence Atkinson, JessicaDismorr, and Gaudier-Brzeska. Epstein chose not to signthe manifesto, although his work was featured. Thereis also a (positive) critique of Kandinsky's Concerningthe Spiritual In Art, a faintly patronising exhortation tosuragettes not to destroy works of art, a review of a Lon-don exhibition of Expressionist woodcuts, and a last digat Marinetti by Wyndham Lewis:

Futurism, as preached by Marinetti, islargely Impressionism up-to-date. To this isadded his Automobilism and Nietzsche stunt,With a lot of good sense and vitality at his dis-posal, he hammers away in the blatant mech-anism of his Manifestos, at his idee xe ofModernity.[13]

2.1 The Manifesto

The rst section of Wyndham Lewis Manifesto, Blast 1, 1914

The manifesto is primarily a long list of things to be'Blessed' or 'Blasted'. It starts:

1. Beyond Action and Reaction we would establishourselves.

2. We start from opposite statements of a chosenworld. Set up violent structure of adolescent clear-ness between two extremes.

3. We discharge ourselves on both sides.4. We ght rst on one side, then on the other, but al-

ways for the SAME cause, which is neither side orboth sides and ours.

5. Mercenaries were always the best troops.6. We are primitive Mercenaries in theModernWorld.7. Our Cause is NO-MAN'S.8. We set Humour at Humours 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 its belly, and bring to the sur-face a laugh like a bomb.

[Blast 1] included the now famous pages ofsubjects either 'Blasted' or 'Blessed' dependingon how they were seen by the edgling Vorti-cists. 'Blast' pages generally had a go at [Roger]Fry, the Bloomsbury set, the average art critic,and Putney (for some reason). Amongst thosebeing Blessed are hairdressers and mariners.The latter two professions were celebrated be-cause they both battle against elemental nature.

Tonks, the Slade drawing tutor has theunique honour of being both 'Blessed' and'Blasted'. Vorticism Online[14]

The rst edition also contained many illustrations in theVorticist style by Jacob Epstein, Lewis and others.The second edition, published on 20 July 1915, containeda short play by Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot's poems Pre-ludes and Rhapsody on a Windy Night. Another arti-cle by Gaudier-Brzeska entitled Vortex (written from theTrenches) further described the vorticist aesthetic. It waswritten whilst Gaudier-Brzeska was ghting in the FirstWorld War, a few weeks before he was killed at Verdun.

3 World War I and the end of Vor-ticism

Thirty-three days after Blast 1was published, war was de-clared on Germany. The First World War would destroy

3vorticism;[15] both Gaudier-Brzeska and T. E. Hulmewere killed at the front, and Bomberg lost his faith inmodernism.[16] Lewis was mobilised in 1916, initiallyghting in France as an artillery ocer, later workingas a war artist for the Canadian Government. He wouldtry to re-invigorate the avant-garde after the war; Lewiswrote to a friend after the war that he intended to pub-lish a third edition of Blast in November 1919.[17] He or-ganised an exhibition of avant-garde artists called GroupX[18] at Heals Gallery in MarchApril 1920, and laterpublished a new magazine, The Tyro, of which only twoissues appeared.[19] The further issue of Blast failed toappear, and neither of the other two ventures managed toachieve the momentum of his pre-war eorts. RichardCook writes:

When Lewis returned from the trenches, hehoped to revivify the Vorticist spirit, planning athird issue of Blast and regaining contact withold allies. But the whole context of pre-warexperimentation had been dispersed by the de-structive power of mechanized warfare, whichpersuaded most of the former Vorticists topursue more representational directions there-after. By 1920 even Lewis was obliged to ad-mit that the movement was dead.[15]

4 Public collectionsBoth editions have been reprinted a number of timesand are shortly to be made available again by Thamesand Hudson; original copies are in the collections ofthe Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate, Yale University,Wake Forest University, University of Delaware, ChelseaCollege, and others. The Nasher Museum of Art atDuke University held an exhibition entitled The Vorticists:Rebel Artists in London and New York, 191418 from 30September 2010, through 2 January 2011.[20]

5 Notes[1] Black (2004), p. 100

[2] see page 1 of Blast or Humphrey Carpenters A SeriousCharacter: The Life of Ezra Pound, p. 249

[3] Pfannkuchen (2005)

[4] Vorticism.co.uk. Vorticism.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-08-17.

[5] Jackie Klein, Guardian Online

[6] University of Delaware Library. Lib.udel.edu. Re-trieved 2009-08-17.

[7] For a part of this speech, se Wikiquotes, Filippo Tom-maso Marinetti

[8] Lyon (1999), p. 97

[9] Black (2004), p. 100

[10] Wyndham Lewis, quoted in Pfannkuchen (2005)

[11] Vorticism Online. Vorticism.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-08-17.

[12] These wayward little objects have a splendid air, startingup in pure creation, with their invariable and lofty detach-ment from any utilitarian end or purpose. But they do notseem to possess the necessary physical stamina to survive,You feel the glue will come unstuck and that you wouldonly have to blow with your mouth to shatter them Rela-tivism and Picassos Latest Work, Lewis, quoted in Blast1, p. 139

[13] Lewis, The Melodrama of Modernity, Blast 1 p. 143

[14] Blast. Vorticism.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-08-17.

[15] Vorticism, an essay by Richard Cook, Oxford Art Online

[16] "[Bombergs] disillusion with the destructive power of themachine at war led to a few years spent experimentingwithways of making his stark pre-war style more rounded andorganic. Quoted from the essay on Bomberg by RichardCork, Oxford Art Online

[17] Quoted in Black (2004), p. 102

[18] Participating artists were Dismorr, Dobson, Etchells, Gin-ner, Hamilton, Lewis, Roberts, McKnight Kauer, Turn-bull and Wadsworth

[19] Tate Online. Tate.org.uk. Retrieved 2009-08-17.

[20] Nasher Museum Retrieved 17 September 2010

6 References Black, Jonathan (2004). Blasting the Future: Vor-

ticism and the Avant-Garde in Britain 191020.Philip Wilson Publishers. ISBN 978-0-85667-572-0

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 ofthe Modern. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-3635-2. (Excerpt at Google Books)

Pfannkuchen, Antje (2005). From Vortex To Vor-ticism: Ezra Pounds art and science. Online viaGoliath and Highbeam.

4 9 EXTERNAL LINKS

7 Facsimile editions of Blast 1982. Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press. ISBN 978-0-87685-521-8.

2009. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-28782-8.

8 Further reading Beckett, Jane (2000). Blast: Vorticism, 19141918.Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84014-647-9

Bury, Stephen (2007). Breaking the Rules: ThePrinted Face of the European Avant Garde 19001937. London: British Library. ISBN 978-0-7123-0980-6

Orchard, Karin ed. (1996). Blast: Vortizismus die erste Avantgarde in England 19141918. Berlin:Ars Nicolai. ISBN 978-3-89169-105-2

9 External links Vorticism Online Blast 1 (1914) at the Modernist Journals Project Blast 1 pdf Blast 2 (1915) at the Modernist Journals Project Blast 2 pdf 9 August 1914, The New York Times VORTICISMTHE LATEST CULT OF REBEL ARTISTS; ItGoes a Step Further Than Cubism and Futurism,and Is Sponsored by Brzeska, Epstein and Others.Its Ocial Mouthpiece Is a Cerise Magazine CalledBlast.

510 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses10.1 Text

Blast (magazine) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_(magazine)?oldid=682702487 Contributors: Charles Matthews, MaximusRex, Bearcat, Mervyn, Solipsist, Sam Hocevar, MakeRocketGoNow, Marudubshinki, Sparkit, BD2412, Rjwilmsi, Tim!, Koavf, Harmil,Jaraalbe, Cactus.man, Anomalocaris, Tne80, Chick Bowen, DAJF, SmackBot, Classiclms, McGeddon, Rrburke, Curly Turkey, Ceoil,Ohconfucius, Yourmotherisanastronaut, Cydebot, Noroton, Actio, Coyets, Modernist, Skomorokh, JustinMN, Guillaume2303, RandyKryn, ClueBot, Franciselliott, Addbot, Blethering Scot, Lightbot, Semlohsa moht, Victoriaearle, AnomieBOT, LilHelpa, Carrite, Edge-cli89, FrescoBot, Tim1357, Maalga, Jay-Sebastos, Philafrenzy, LeagueX, Helpful Pixie Bot, Egeymi, Vortexpress, Godsy and Anony-mous: 23

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Background EditionsThe Manifesto

World War I and the end of VorticismPublic collectionsNotesReferencesFacsimile editions of BlastFurther readingExternal linksText and image sources, contributors, and licensesTextImagesContent license