The native of Canada was born at the shores of Nova Scotia aboard his father’s yacht. He grew up and was brought up in England; all his paintings and literary works were connected with this country.
1882 - 1957
Percy Wyndham Lewis
description
Wyndham Lewis, the most famous English modernist, played a prominent role in both painting and literature. He is best known as the founder and the main representative of Vorticism, a specific branch of Futurism in the art that went far enough beyond its borders. Despite conventional methods, the idea of this English avant-garde movement is not to glorify the mechanization of society, but in its detrimental effect. The name of the work that derived from the Italian «vortizto» (whirlwind) is taken from the statement by W. Boccioni, an Italian Futurist, that all creativity comes from a whirlwind of feelings. Through the journals he published, Lewis influenced the development of the pioneering British movement as a whole.
He mostly created portraits – he depicted key representatives of the culture of England in the first half of the 20th century, whom he knew personally. In the plot genre, the most powerful is his cycle of works on military subjects: the artist participated in the First World War.
Key ideas:
– In the history of culture, Lewis is mainly the leader of Vorticism. This crude, sometimes brutal form of modernism that derived from futurism and cubism had a different idea from the named styles. While Futurists celebrate technical progress as the progress of mankind, the English branches of Futurism show how “the concrete and mechanical” world crushes a human being.
– The method of Lewis who loved both Cubism and Futurism but cherished ambitions to create a unique style was based on the doctrine that creativity is the strongest explosions (whirlwinds) of feelings, and only they can be a source of a true work of art.
– The artist said about the portraits he created, “The reality reflected in them (portraits) is fresh and elegant and is not inferior to the same qualities of the so famous great portraits of the Renaissance. A portrait ceases to be just a portrait, powerfully involving you as if you were living the moment of someone’s life or even participating in a life that is brighter than yours”. ”The portrait of the artist in the image of painter Raphael” (1921) in this regard is the artist’s tribute to traditional historical roots.
– Many famous portraits by Lewis have a characteristic feature – the eyes are either lowered or directed deep into oneself as if the model avoids meeting the gaze of the artist and the viewer. The painter so skillfully achieved harmony between the content and form that his senior contemporary, W. Sickert, who had no sympathy for modernism, called W. Lewis “the greatest portrait painter who has ever lived on Earth”.
1882
1899
1902
1912
1914
1915
1917
1921
1937
1956
1957
The birth of the artist
Studied at the Felix Slade School of Fine Arts
Studied at the Felix Slade School of Fine Arts, a London-based educational institution with a worldwide reputation.
He went on a long seven-year trip to Europe
He went on a long seven-year trip to Europe with a long stay and worked in Paris, where he attended lectures on the philosophy of Henri Bergson and was influenced by his ideas, which, however, he was then severely criticized.
He presented his illustrations for Shakespeare’s plays
After participating in the London exhibition of the Camden Town Group, the founding member of which he was, he presented his illustrations for Shakespeare’s plays and three oil paintings at the second post-impressionist show, organized by Roger Fry. He came into close contact with the Bloomsbury group, met artists Vanessa and Clive Bell, and then started collaborating with the creative group “London”.
«The Vorticist Manifesto»
The artist composed the Vorticist Manifesto, conceived as a response to the Futuristic Manifesto of the representatives of the Italian avant-garde. The American poet and friend of the artist Ezra Pound became the spiritual inspirer and co-author. Lewis also wrote several essays, outlining his aesthetics of the Vorticist and its difference from other avant-garde practices. Ezra Pound, an American poet and friend of the artist, became his spiritual inspirer and co-author. Lewis also wrote several essays, outlining his aesthetics of the Vorticism and its difference from other avant-garde practices.
«Blast»
Edited the Blast magazine founded a year earlier; founded the “Vorticism” magazine with fancy fonts and challenging content. Started the project “Center for rebellious culture”.
He was appointed an official war artist
Lewis’ patron J. Quinn organized an exhibition of the Vorticists at the Penguin Club in New York. Lewis was sent to the western front, fought in the Royal Artillery. He was appointed an official war artist of the Canadian and British command and served at the headquarters of the Canadian Corps.
Renewed his career as a major painter
Renewed his career as a major painter at the Leicester Gallery. Of the presented series of paintings and satirical drawings, only two survived, including his self-portrait in the form of a recruit on a yellow background. Lewis started publishing his second magazine, “The Tyro”, in which he published his “Essay on the Purpose of Plastic Art in Our Time”, outlining the establishment of a new post-war visual aesthetic.
Publicly refused to support National Socialism
Publicly refused to support National Socialism (since 1931 he considered Adolf Hitler “a man of the world”), having encountered the consequences of anti-Semitism during his trip to Berlin. Lewis managed to restore his reputation, and his painting “Capitulation of Barcelona” was included in the exhibition of the Leicester Gallery.
«Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism»
The prestigious Tate Gallery held a major exhibition of the artist’s works entitled “Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism”. In a catalog that the artist wrote when he was already blind, he stated, “Vorticism was what I did and what I said at a certain period.”
The death of the artist
Percy Wyndham Lewis died on March 7 in 1957 in London, the UK.