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Description: | image: A scene from the bottom of a dry dock with a gang of painters red-leading the bottom of a dazzle-painted
ship.
Edward Wadsworth explored the industrialised machine age in bold, geometric compositions characteristic of the
Vorticist movement. After meeting Wyndham Lewis, he became a key member of the Vorticists and contributed work to the movement’s
publication, Blast. During the war Wadsworth served as a naval dock officer supervising the dazzle camouflage painting of ships. The
geometric shapes painted on these industrial megaliths were perfectly suited to Wadworth’s style and interests. Here, the solid blocks of
both the painted sections of the ship and the surrounding dry-dock give an abstract air to a realistic scene. The modern industrial setting
is perfectly synchronised with the almost three-dimensional perspective, the numerous lines on the sides of the dry-dock implying a
thrusting, progressive force derived from Futurism. The tiny, cubic figures of the workers are dwarfed by the ship, which although man-made
appears to have assumed an independent power.
Framed black and white woodcut. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | shipping Royal Navy 1914-1918 Merchant Navy First Battle of the Atlantic 1914-1918 Merchant Navy 1914-1918 Royal Navy Camouflage dazzle / marine camouflage workers First World War Atlantic Ocean | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Wadsworth, Edward Alexander (ARA) | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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