Beschrijving
Rhythms of Modern Life examines the impact of avant-garde Continental influences on British printmaking in the years stretching from the First World War to the outbreak of the second. Highlighting works by thirteen artists, it focuses in particular on the dynamic energy of C.R.W. Nevinson, Paul Nash, Edward Wadsworth, and David Bomberg (early followers of Italian Futurism and British Vorticism) and on the works of Claude Flight, Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power, and Lill Tschudi. The book features more than one hundred lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, and linocuts, ranging from radical geometric abstractions to forceful impressions of the first fully mechanized war to colorful Jazz Age images of sporting events, speed trials, and other contemporary diversions. Clifford S. Ackley’s introduction takes stock of the art historical moment and is followed by lively thematic discussions of the prints, an overview of the history and technique of the modern linocut, and short biographies of the artists. Though largely unknown, especially in America, the images produced by these innovative printmakers powerfully embody the era’s preoccupations with speed, machines, urbanism, and other exciting new facets of modern life.
