On June 5th British Art suffered a significant loss when the French-born painter and sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was killed in fighting at Neuville-Saint-Vaast. By all accounts a brave and even reckless soldier, Gaudier-Brzeska returned to his native France at the start of the fighting, enlisting in the infantry.
An artist who reveled in the raw power of creation, his sculpture was heavily influenced by non-European works from Africa and the Pacific islands. Championed by Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis, he was a leading figure in the Vorticist movement. It was perhaps fitting that Gaudier-Brzeska died in the trenches, where Vorticism expressed itself in carvings of flesh and bone.
On June 27th, Gen. Vittoriano Huerta, the most hated man in Mexico was arrested in Newman, New Mexico. Huerta, an officer who built his career on ruthlessly suppressing popular insurrections, was widely seen as having betrayed President Francisco Madero and ordering his execution. He usurped the presidency for himself and, when finally overthrown by the revolutionary forces of Zapata, Obregon and Villa went into exile. While residing in New York City he plotted with representatives of Germany to return to Mexico and re-capture the presidency. Instead he was detained and taken to Ft. Bliss, Texas where he was held under house arrest. Released on bail but later re-arrested, he died in El Paso, Texas on January 13th of the following year.
