Vorticism, movement in modern English art that was founded by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. It was launched in 1913, but by the end of World War I (1914-1918) it had ceased to exist, despite efforts to revive it. Its members included the painters C. R. W. Nevinson, William Roberts, and Edward Wadsworth, and the sculptors Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.

The mouthpiece of vorticism was the bombastic journal Blast: Review of the Great English Vortex, which appeared twice, in June 1914 and July 1915 (War Number). The first issue carried the “Vorticist Manifesto,” which was signed by 11 artists. Only one vorticist exhibition was ever held, in April 1915 at the Doré Galleries in London. The name of the movement was supposedly coined by American poet Ezra Pound. Although presented by Lewis as a distinctive national development, vorticism was in fact heavily reliant on cubism and particularly futurism for both its attitudes and style. Typical vorticist paintings are constructed from angular, geometric elements in either abstract or figurative compositions.

The initial stimulus to the foundation of vorticism came on June 7, 1914, with the publication in The Observer of the “Vital English Art Futurist Manifesto” by the Italian futurist leader Filippo Marinetti and Nevinson. In this, Marinetti claimed that certain English avant-garde artists, including Lewis and his colleagues, were essentially affiliates of the Italian futurist movement. Given that there was no cohesive group of such artists and that Lewis wanted to be the leader of an entirely independent group, he responded with the first issue of Blast on June 20, 1914. This “blasted” various people and institutions, including England (“curse its climate for its sins and infections”), and “blessed” others: England was also blessed “for its ships.” The rather vague manifesto contained a series of brief statements of belief, such as the importance of the primitive in modern art: “The artist of the modern movement is a savage.” It also asserted the superiority of northern culture over that of the south, essentially a snipe at the futurists.

Although elements of the vorticist style, the movement’s aggressive self-publicity, and its devotion to modernity brought it close to futurism, there are nevertheless important differences between the two. The machine was not a central part of vorticist imagery nor a determinant of its aesthetic, whereas for the futurists it was emblematic of all that most distinguished the modern world. Further, vorticist paintings are less frenetic and dynamic than futurist ones; again, speed was not crucially interesting to the vorticists. In fact, there is a harmony and balance in vorticist art that brings it closer to cubism, as seen, for example, in Lewis’s Workshop (about 1914-1915, Tate Gallery, London) or even Nevinson’s Bursting Shell (1915, Tate Gallery). Indeed, Lewis thought futurism essentially romantic in outlook, as compared to the classicism of vorticism. Despite its short life, vorticism was important for being the first organized avant-garde movement in 20th-century British art.