Blast: Vortizismus Die Erste Avantgarde in England 1914-1918

Blast was the polemical literary and art journal of the Vorticists, founded by Wyndham Lewis and named by the poet Ezra Pound. Known for its shocking bright magenta/puce covers, bold block typography, and a harsh geometric abstraction that combined Cubism and Futurism while celebrating the machine age. The journal featured famous “blasts” and “blesses” targeting Victorian sentimentality, academic art, and commercial mediocrity. The movement was effectively destroyed by the outbreak and devastation of the First World War, which claimed the lives of key contributors like Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.