Edward Wadsworth

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Abstract Composition, 1915, Tate Gallery.

Edward Alexander Wadsworth (1889 – 21 June 1949) was an English artist.

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Later life
4 Influences
5 References
6 External links
7 Further reading

[edit] Early life

Wadsworth was born in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire and educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh,^[1] but moved to London and studied at the Slade School of Art.

[edit] Career

It was at the Slade that he became associated with the Vorticists. He served in the Navy in World War I designing dazzle camouflage for allied ships; nautical themes were present in his art for the rest of his career.

Wadsworth moved away from the avant-garde in the 1920s, and adopted a more realistic style. However, towards the end of his life his work became increasingly strange and surreal, although Wadsworth never had any formal links with the official Surrealist movement.

Gravestone, Brompton Cemetery, London

[edit] Later life

Wadsworth died in 1949, and is buried in Brompton Cemetery.

[edit] Influences

The graphic designer Peter Saville had seen the painting Dazzle Ships In Drydock At Liverpool (1919) by Edward Wadsworth and was struck by the image. Dazzle Ships were World War 1 warships that had been painted in fractured and disjointed lines to confuse the enemy as to their exact size and distance. Wadsworth himself supervised the dazzle painting of many ships.

After suggesting the idea and title to Andy McCluskey of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Saville carried the theme over to the sleeve design of their album Dazzle Ships. The sleeve was a gatefold which was painted in dazzle camouflage in greens and blacks. The later CD version was painted in blue and black, though the re-release of the CD in March 2008 recreates the original vinyl version of the artwork.