L.2013.6.11: Blast, no. 2: War Number (July 1915)

Founded by poet Ezra Pound and artist Wyndham Lewis, Blast was the publication of the British Vorticist movement. Envisioning their movement as an alternative to Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism, the Vorticists "blasted" Britain's persistent Victorian culture. Blast was innovative for its experimentations in typography, reminiscent of Marinetti's Zang tumb tuuum.The second issue, labeled "War Number," features a cover image by Lewis, a short play by Pound, poems by T.S. Eliot, and an article by the artist Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, who was killed a few weeks later, in the fighting at Verdun. The Vorticist movement was also a casualty of the war; the second issue of Blast was to be its last.