Editing Vorticism (section)

== ''BLAST'' ==
[[File:Blast titel.png|thumb|120x160px|right|''BLAST: The Review of the Great English Vortex'',1914]]

Although the Rebel Art Centre was short-lived,<ref>It closed later in 1914 following paranoia, jealousy and squabbling especially with regard to the relationship between Kate Latchmere and Wyndham Lewis and T. E. Hulme – see, Cork, ''Vorticism and Its Allies'', p. 17.</ref> 'Vorticism' was given assured longevity through the dazzling typography and the audacious (and humorous) 'blasting' and 'blessing' of myriad sacred cows of English and American culture that appeared in the first issue of ''BLAST: The Review of the Great English Vortex'', published in July 1914.

[[Image:Bomberg, The Mud Bath.jpg|thumb|180x240px|left|[[David Bomberg]], ''[[The Mud Bath]]'', 1914, [[Tate]]]]

''BLAST'' was launched at a 'riotous celebratory dinner'<ref>Cork, ''Vorticism and Its Allies'', p. 21.</ref> at the Dieudonné Hotel in the [[St James's]] area of London on 15  July 1914.<ref>The Dieudonné (the 'God-Given') was a French-run hotel at 9–11 Ryder Street (now part of Christie's building in King Street). It closed later in 1914. In William Roberts's large painting from 1961–2 [[The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Spring 1915]], Roberts represents the ''BLAST'' launch as being at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel in Percy Street, Fitzrovia.  Richard Cork clarifies that the painting is an 'imaginative evocation' of the event 'rather than a historically accurate record ... . [however] the Tour Eiffel's genial proprietor, Rudolphe Stulik, was always lavish with his hospitality towards the Vorticists; and Roberts ... . testified that "in my memory la cuisine Française and Vorticism are indissolubly linked”' – Cork, ''Vorticism and Its Allies'', pp. 106–7.</ref> The magazine was mainly the work of Lewis, but also included extensive written pieces by Ford Madox Hueffer and [[Rebecca West]], as well as poetry by Pound, articles by Gaudier-Brzeska and Wadsworth, and reproductions of paintings by Lewis, Wadsworth, Etchells, Roberts, Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska and Hamilton.<ref>''BLAST'' can be viewed online from many sources, including https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1143209523824858.pdf.</ref> The manifesto was apparently 'signed' by eleven signatories.<ref>Under 'Signatures for Manifesto' on page 43 of ''BLAST'' No.1 were listed 'R. Aldington', 'Arbuthnot', 'L. Atkinson', 'Gaudier Brzeska', 'J. Dismorr', 'C. Hamilton', 'E. Pound', 'W. Roberts', 'H. Sanders' (''sic''), 'E. Wadsworth' and 'Wyndham Lewis'.</ref> Lewis, Pound and Gaudier-Brzeska were at the intellectual heart of the project, but Roberts's later comments suggest that most of the group were not made aware of the manifesto's contents before publication.<ref>Roberts, ''Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work'', p. 9.</ref> Jacob Epstein was presumably too established to be co-opted as a signatory, and David Bomberg had threatened Lewis with legal action if his work was reproduced in ''BLAST'' and made his independence very clear through a one-man show at the [[Chenil Galleries]], also in July, where his large abstract painting ''Mud Bath'' was prominently displayed outside above the entrance.<ref>Cork, ''Vorticism and Its Allies'', p. 24.</ref>