Edward Wadsworth
UK (1889—1949)Born in Cleckheaton, Yorkshire, Wadsworth first studied engineering in Munich before returning to England, where he attended the Bradford School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Initially influenced by Post-Impressionism, he soon became interested in Futurism and, through his association with Wyndham Lewis, became one of the leading figures of Vorticism, signing its manifesto in 1914. He exhibited with the Vorticists at the Doré Gallery in 1915, shortly before joining the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. During the war he worked on transferring dazzle camouflage designs onto Allied ships, an experience that inspired his major painting Dazzle-Ships in Drydock at Liverpool. After the war his work moved away from the avant-garde towards more representational imagery, particularly maritime subjects, while retaining a strong interest in abstraction and geometric structure. In 1933 he became a founding member of Unit One, and his later work increasingly incorporated surreal qualities without his ever formally joining the Surrealist movement.
