Group X
Group X was a short-lived British artistic movement formed in 1920, in the years after the First World War, by painters who abruptly left the London Group. Six former Vorticists - Jessica Dismorr, Frederick Etchells, Cuthbert Hamilton, Wyndham Lewis, William Roberts, and Edward Wadsworth - were joined by the sculptor Frank Dobson, Charles Ginner, the American Edward McKnight Kauffer, and John Turnbull. The group's entire public life was a single exhibition at the Mansard Gallery in Heal's on Tottenham Court Road, from 26 March to 24 April 1920, announced by Kauffer's lithograph poster. Further shows were planned but never happened, and the movement dissolved almost immediately. It stands as the Vorticists' last collective gesture: hard-edged post-war modernism looking for a new footing after the war that had ended Vorticism.
Defining characteristics
- Vorticist inheritance: hard-edged geometry, machine-age forms, and dynamic interlocking planes
- Cubist- and Futurist-influenced faceting of figures and space
- Bold, simplified graphic design, as in Kauffer's lithograph exhibition poster
- Modern sculpture shown alongside painting (Frank Dobson)
- A mix of abstraction and stylized figuration across the exhibitors
Key figures
- Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) — Founder of Vorticism and the moving spirit behind Group X's break from the London Group
- Edward Wadsworth (1889-1949) — Ex-Vorticist painter of machine-age marine and industrial subjects
- Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) — American designer and painter who made the Group X exhibition poster
- Frank Dobson (1888-1963) — Sculptor who brought modern carving into the group's single exhibition
Example works
- Poster for the Group X exhibition, Mansard Gallery — Edward McKnight Kauffer (1920)
- Catalogue of the Group X exhibition, Mansard Gallery — Group X (1920)
Sources
- Group X - Wikipedia encyclopedia
- Vorticism - Wikipedia encyclopedia