Är inte detta sensationellt roligt, och desssutom ännu ett bevis varför medlemskap i Wyndham Lewis Society börjar bli obligatoriskt:

Dear friends and colleagues,

We would be very grateful if you would distribute or display the attached notice in your department or among students and fellow staff. The next meeting of the Wyndham Lewis Reading Group will take place as follows:

Thursday 22nd March, 2012 – 18.00 – 20.00 Senate House, Institute of English Studies, London – Speaker: Rosalind McKever, Kingston University and the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art

‘The Present is Art’: Vorticist and Futurist Temporalities

In 1914 Vorticism defined itself in part through a denunciation of ‘backwards’ Futurism. The Futurists had done much the same in the manifestos of 1909 and 1910 which repudiated their passatista contemporaries. Despite Marinetti’s fondness for the metropolis of London, the Italians hit back in the same year as the publication of Blast I by highlighting the traditionalism of the city’s art. In short, both movements believed the other to be passéist. On the other hand, they both believed their own movements to be of their time. The present is often lauded on the pages of Blast. While the Futurists may initial appear predominantly concerned with the future, Lewis’s critique of them, and my close reading, agree that they are, above all, presentists. Lewis is able to both claim their presentism and denounce their passéism as he considers their Milanese present to be behind that of London. However, the preoccupation with the primitive expressed by both movements suggests a desire to withdraw from the modern temporality of the post-industrial revolution city altogether. Drawing on the writings of the Lewis, Pound, Marinetti, Boccioni and Severini, the artwork produced by the two movements, and the wider temporalities of London and Milan in the period 1909-1915, I look to reconsider how these two avant-gardes related to their times, and to time itself. Through assessing the temporality of each movement through its critique of the other I will focus on their shared antipassatismo, presentism and atemporality with the ultimate aim of nuancing the temporality of the rubric of avant-gardism which both movements share.

We look forward to seeing you there.