Looking through the 1915 edition of BLAST (which you can find in its entirety online here).
I was struck by the article by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (‘Written from the Trenches’), and especially by its conclusion:
Whenever I go to an exhibition of British modernist art, it is always Gaudier’s sculpture that most lifts my spirit.
By the time this issue of BLAST appeared, Gaudier was dead.
Great War Fiction 
4 Comments
Another thought-provoking and sobering piece from this excellent publication. Thank you
Thank you, George, as ever.
I’ve been in favour of Gaudier ever since reading this in the Cantos, sitting in the school library back in 1965 when I was meant to be writing an A-level essay on Louis XIV:
‘…And Henri Gaudier went to it,
and they killed him,
And killed a good deal of sculpture,
And ole T.E.H. he went to it,
With a lot of books from the library,
London Library, and a shell buried ‘em in a dug-out,
And the Library expressed its annoyance….’
Of all the artistic excellence cut short by the war his face always comes to my mind first. His legacy is now forever preserved in an attenuated form because of wars tragedy. What would he have lived on to become and create? I never got to the recent New Rhythms exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge though just last week I received the exhibition catalogue in the post. I did however accidentally come across the smaller touring view at Harewood House in which I spent a very happy couple of hours. Specially interesting were his letters and photo’s.
Fascinating post. I first heard about Gaudier-Brezka via Ken Russell’s film ‘Savage Messiah’ from 1972. Was available on Youtube but removed due to copyright issues. There is a still clip here .