Thus, not only did the avant-garde hold contempt for the plebeian masses and for middlebrow culture, but also, in the case of Vorticism in particular, had serious contentions even with other, less extreme modernist groups such as Impressionism and Imagism (Blast: Vorticism, 1914–1918, 2018). This is because, over time, the avant-garde saw these movements become assimilated into the mainstream. It was out of this quarrelsome spirit that Vorticism would emerge.
Rebel Artists: famous feuds and the makings of Vorticism
A death blow to Futurism
In the months leading up to the emergence of Vorticism, Lewis founded the short-lived Rebel Art Center in London. Here, he associated with other avant-garde writers and artists such as the Italian Futurist, Filippo Marinetti, who would serve as a source of foundational inspiration for the Vorticist movement. As Paul Edwards recounts, such is evident through Lewis and Marinetti’s shared draw towards dynamism and motion; embracing of modernity and the machine; and their brash, confrontational artistic and literary styles (Blast: Vorticism, 1914–1918, 2018).
Moreover, the relationship between Lewis and Marinetti was far from a collaborative one. Rather, they were embroiled in a competitive feud over their art. In particular, when Marinetti published his own manifesto under the Rebel Artist name, Lewis took it as a direct challenge to his authority, and this served as the impetus for Lewis to distinguish himself by publishing Blast, his own Vorticist manifesto, which was conceived of as a “'death blow” to Futurism (Blast: Vorticism, 1914–1918, 2018).
The vortex
The squabble between Lewis and Marinetti wasn’t the only feud that played into the makings of Vorticism. Ezra Pound, one of Vorticism’s key figures, came up with the concept of ‘the vortex’, after which the movement was named following a dramatic split with another modernist current, the Imagists. Imagism refers to,