Wyndham Lewis

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Wyndham LewisBritish, born Canada, 1882 - 1957

Canadian-born English painter and writer. Lewis studied art at the Slade School in London (1898–1901), where his draughtsmanship was much admired, and spent the next seven years in Europe, often with AUGUSTUS JOHN in Paris. Most of his early work is lost. On his return to England his work displayed elements of CUBISM and FUTURISM and in 1912 he was included in ROGER FRY'S second POST-IMPRESSIONIST exhibition. He worked briefly in Fry's OMEGA WORKSHOPS (1913) before founding the Rebel Art Centre (1914), the focus of his self-styled VORTICIST movement. Together with Ezra Pound and GAUDIER-BRZESKA he founded the Vorticist journal Blast (1914) which he also edited. Working as an official Canadian war artist in both World Wars, Lewis developed Vorticism along more humanistic lines although his compositions remained jagged and his linearity exaggerated. An admired portraitist, in both drawing and painting, his subjects include Edith Sitwell (1923–35; London, Tate). His combative and egocentric nature, evident in his prolific writings and his Self-Portrait as a Tyro (1920; Hull, University), ensured that his membership of artistic groupings, like Group X (1919), was short-lived. Later in his career, influenced by DE CHIRICO, his work became increasingly mythological. In 1953 blindness ended his painting and he devoted himself to writing. His novels, which include The Apes of God (1930) and Malign Fiesta (1955), are renowned for their vehement satire. (SOURCE: Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e1465?q=percy+wyndham+lewis&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit, accessed 10/18/16).

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Children playing
Wyndham Lewis
Date: 1945
Medium: India ink and watercolor with traces of grey chalk on paper
Object number: 1994.128
with frame. Photograph by John Bentham.
Wyndham Lewis
Date: 1938
Medium: Oil on canvas
Object number: 1991.126
Lion and Martyrs
Wyndham Lewis
Date: 1947
Medium: Black and colored chalk on paper
Object number: 1993.18
© Estate of the artist or assignee.
Wyndham Lewis
Date: 1920
Medium: Gouache, ink, and watercolor with collage on paper
Object number: 1994.130
Photograph by John Bentham.
Wyndham Lewis
Date: 1918
Medium: Charcoal, pen and ink, watercolor, and gouache wash on paper
Object number: 1995.73
Study for oil of Ezra Pound (recto and verso)
Wyndham Lewis
Date: 1938
Medium: Double-sided drawing with transparent watercolor wash over graphite and charcoal (recto) and graphite (verso) on paper
Object number: 2004.3a-b
The Three Beggars
Wyndham Lewis
Date: 1942
Medium: Pen and ink with watercolor on paper
Object number: 1993.17
Untitled (Design on the back of an envelope)
Wyndham Lewis
Date: early 20th century
Medium: India ink and watercolor on envelope
Object number: 1994.127
Untitled [drawing of a girl with a scarf]
Wyndham Lewis
Date: 1925
Medium: India ink and watercolor on paper
Object number: 1994.129
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