Evaluation of British Prints from the Machine Age, Rhythms of Modern Life - Summary

British Prints from the Machine Age

Rhythms of Modern Life

1914 - 1939

Edited by Clifford S. Ackley

Key Points

• A traditional handmade approach to print can be very successful in engaging with an audience (expressive). Informs people of the reality of war.
• Putting a sense of an ideal for society in art can spark discussions and make people begin to think about the world we live in and how this affects the masses. Universally acknowledged, especially in warfare.
• Reflection of a certain time/event in history.
• Nash's prints gave people a unique insight into the battlefield of World War I.
• Notion of sharing ideas - War propaganda.

Key Quotes

• 'This catalogue traces these artists' responses to radical modernism... C.R.W Nevinson's adaptation of futurism to the illustration of the bleakness of the first mechanized war... Grosvenor school lino cut ''pop'' futurism with its colorful renditions of modern urban life'. (Comparative)
• 'tells a story of how the 1910-14 invasion of continental modernist styles produced the British avant-garde reaction of vorticism and, later, the absorption and recycling of modernism... aimed at a broader audience... works representing a between-the-wars... traditional representation and the spirit of new'.
• Roger Fry's Shows 'introduced the British art world to continental modernism... cubism, German expressionism, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, and Brancusi... excitement and cultural debate... revelatory exhibitions'.
• Printmakers on the battlefield of World War I Nevinson 'when exposed first-hand to the brutality of the first mechanized war he acknowledged in his images its grim reality... identity as original prints... by the artist's aggressive attack on the printing surface... scratching directly into the copper of the printing plate... scraping out lighter lines... lithographs'.
• 'Nevinson's modified application of futurist an cubist design principles to the illustration of a new, less heroic kind of mechanized war was surprisingly successful with a public that grasped the relevance of a modern style to modern war'.
• 'Nevinson and Paul Nash served as government-sponsored official war artists. Nash's art was transformed by his battlefield experience... startling war lithographs... present us with a haunted terrain never before seen... new technological violence'.
• Nevinson, Nash 'represent a unique and vibrant moment in British modernism... 1914 to 1939... personal transformations of futurism and cubism captured the thrusting, vertiginous, or syncopated rhythms of the modern world... desolate no-man's-land of the Great War'. 

Summary

'British Prints from the Machine Age, Rhythms of Modern Life', edited by Clifford S. Ackley, explores the ways in which print can highlight certain experiences to provoke a reaction from an audience in society, relating to warfare in particular.

Firstly, Ackley points out that a traditional, handmade and expressive approach to print can be very successful in engaging with an audience. The way in which 'these artists' responses to radical modernism' are recorded can be informative to a viewer. For example C.R.W Nevinson illustrates 'the bleakness of the first mechanized war' in his prints. 'When exposed first-hand to the brutality', you can see from his 'aggressive attack on the printing surface' that a genuine human reaction was provoked by what he saw. The 'grim reality' of war was reflected into Nevinson's images by the way he scratched 'directly into the copper of the printing plate' and scraped out lighter lines in his lithographs. Ackley described this as a 'modified application' which embraced 'futurist and cubist design principles' and was very well accepted. It was 'surprisingly successful with a public that grasped the relevance of a modern style' in relation to promoting a 'less heroic' way to represent war in art.

Both Nevinson and Paul Nash were sponsored by the government to become official war artists. Similarly to Nevinson, Nash's art was transformed by what he experienced on the battlefield. He presented people with 'startling war lithographs' that demonstrated a 'haunted terrain' and 'new technological violence' that had not been seen before by the public. There was an honesty about the way the prints depicted the harshness of war and abolished the glamorisation of what consequentially became a brutal event in history. Ackley suggests that from 1914 to 1939 Nevinson and Nash represented 'a unique and vibrant moment in British modernism'. Their 'personal transformations of futurism and cubism' meant that they were able to notify a greater audience of the 'thrusting, vertiginous, or syncopated rhythms of the modern world' in comparison to the 'desolate no-man's-land of the Great War' effectively.

Using print to share and express a personal sense of concern for a society can spark discussions. It can make people begin to think about the world we live in, the problems we face and how this affects humanity on a mass scale. The notion of this is universally acknowledged, especially when it comes to the topic of warfare.