Modernist Magazines and Digital Humanities

Unlike its Vorticist predecessor, Blast, Wyndham Lewis's second short-lived magazine, The Tyro, concerns itself less with aesthetic/theoretical didacticism than it does with critical analyses of modernist issues, particularly in art. The ostensible aim in publishing such articles is to disprove the prevailing belief, observed by Lewis, that "Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism, and all the rest of that revolutionary phase of art, is dead" (No. 2, page 3).  In the second (and final) issue of The Tyro, published in 1922, authors O. Raymond Drey and Jessie Dismorr each make a case for the continued relevance of modern art: Drey, by deconstructing the complicated and often bemused societal attitudes toward modernism, and Dismorr by cataloguing the recent crop of modern artists working out of Russia, whose emerging bodies of vital, experimental work in painting, sculpture and costume disproved the notion that modernism was dead.

      Drey's article, "Abstract Art and Some Analogies," primarily addresses the belief that, lacking function, abstract art is useless. He counters this idea with the contention that, though its function is unusual, it serves a function nevertheless.  Unlike those objects with aesthetic value related to the direct relationship between form and function, as in the beauty of a yacht's hull or "the cambered wings of an aeroplane," the aesthetic value of the abstract is not related to productivity (14).  Rather, the effect of abstract art is "on the mind and imagination of the spectator who is sensitive to formal design" (14).  Drey also addresses the detractors of the abstract, who cannot imagine its use, describing them as those viewers who  "are the least sensitive to the prodigal confusion of abstract forms in the midst of which they move and have their being" (14-15).   In other words, the abstract work is nothing more or less than the pure expression of the world in which it was created, a product of political, social, economic, global and local influences.  Further, far from being irrelevant or useless, this kind of art is only appreciable by the viewer with an acute sensitivity/susceptibility to the emotionality of pure form, rather than to meanings conveyed through narratives or poetic allusion (15).  

     Drey goes on to address other factors which may contribute to the unpopularity of the modern or abstract work, contending that its authors hinder the skeptic's ability to apprehend meaning by attempting to associate the work with "recognisable objects" (15).  A piece entitled "A Portrait of Madame X," for example may perplex the viewer who seeks to identify the conventional form of a woman within the abstract picture.  Such complicating titles are alienating, not only in the creation of distance between the viewer and the work's possible meanings, but by inspiring in the viewer feelings of frustration at not being able to understand a kind of inside "joke" (16).  Further, applying recognizable titles to abstract pieces dilutes the potency of the art itself.  As Drey puts it, "Those who are naturally impervious to the music of form, and those others who misprize it unless combined with a more complex form of appeal, are not to be won by explanation."  That is to say, the abstract is sensed or experienced and should not be intellectualized in order to be understood.

     For her part, Jessie Dismorr seeks to validate the work of modern and abstract artists by highlighting the various efforts of working artists in Russia.  Dismorr's piece, "Some Russian Artists," is an interesting artifact of criticism, as it contemporarily reviews the work of a few artists whose work would prove to be important well after the modernist period.  She hails the futurist Natalia Goncharova whose work spanned various mediums such as painting and costume design, for her "daring" juxtaposition of "chromes and majentas," as well as for employing "cubist devices" in her work with costumes (19).  Dismorr also interestingly places Chagal among the Russian artists, calling him/his work "a curious vessel of the national [Russian] spirit" (19).

     Although Drey's and Dismorr's respective approaches to the subject of modernist art are quite different (the former writes critical theory, while the latter writes art criticism), both pieces demonstrate The Tyro's dedication to affirming and promoting modernist art well after a skeptical public had begun to dismiss it.  Each piece proves that, despite contemporary skepticism, the importance and meanings of such art were still being widely discussed and considered; as such, The Tyro itself is a fantastic artifact of an emerging strain of art criticism and theory from a period of great innovation and creativity.

Tyro, Wyndham Lewis' Post War, and in many ways Post Vorticist, answer to Blast magazine opens in much the same fashion as it’s predecessor. This time, however, in the case of the second issue, it has advertising. To a large extent one can take this to be symbolic of the changes in the content and layout of this new magazine. It was more corporate. It was more tame. It was less angry. It was less poetic.

Without the involvement of Ezra Pound, the Tyro was primarily a magazine about art, rather than politics and poetry. The first issue began with Editorial notes that indicated the shifted focus of the magazine: “To be a rallying spot for those painters, or persons interesting in painting, in this country.” Lewis believed that after the Great War England was on the precipice of a Renaissance “much greater than the Italian Renaissance.” Given the size and length of World War I, and the effect it had on the general countenance of Europeans, Lewis suggested that what the Vorticists were able to accomplish before and during the war was only the beginning. In reality, Vorticism had been on its way out for the seven years in between Blast and Tyro, and there was no English Renaissance in sight. This post war Vorticist art was different. Less Futurist, less Cubist, and less Abstract. It was more classical and more realistic. It focused more on the human form, and was less conceptual.  It was less abrasive, and more pleasing to the eye. Pieces like Family and Lady Seated at Table might never have graced the pages of Blast. Certainly Tyro saw similarly abstract drawings, like Gunwalloe, but Lewis’ own art seemed almost uncharacteristic of his original Vorticist creations. In a post war Europe the coarse vexation of Vorticism was no longer feasible. The movement was at a stand still and it would need to widen its scope to achieve the kind of modern Renaissance it hoped to see. It included advertising. It included clay figures. It included short stories. And even after all that Vorticism is just a footnote of Modernism rather than the definition of the camp.
 

Blast magazine's second issue, entitled the War Number, deals almost exclusively with the Great War. The plain cover of the first issue is replaced by a violent, Vorticist look at battle as drawn by Wyndham Lewis. The magazine begins with its usual manifestos and explanations of conflict in terms of the magazine's publication. Its "Editorial." sums up their excitement about the war, and their look at art's relevance in war time, both of which the writers of the magazine elaborate on tirelessly throughout the rest of the issue. Lewis' position is that violent times call for important art, and that people are more interested in art during these times. (Interest in Vorticist art did indeed dwindle over the next couple of years.) Delighted by the fighting, Lewis explains that the war is not just a war against the German govenrment. It is also a war against German art, which is too traditional and romantic. England is fighting for England, as well as their newest brand of modern, unsentimental art brought forward by Blast. This two front war is vitally important the the future of art, the future of England, and the future of Blast, which he to thinks will live on long past this second issue. It, as we know, does not live on, and evidentally England did not think it was fighting a war against German art, but simply a war against German soldiers.