Wyndham Lewis

1882–1957

Wyndham Lewis, ‘Workshop’ c.1914–15
Workshop c.1914–15
© Wyndham Lewis and the estate of Mrs G A Wyndham Lewis by kind permission of the Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust (a registered charity)
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In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: 1910

Free entry
In Tate Britain

Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One

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In Tate Modern

Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art

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Biography

Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was an English writer, painter and critic (he dropped the name "Percy", which he disliked). He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST. His novels include his pre-World War I-era novel Tarr (set in Paris), and The Human Age, a trilogy comprising The Childermass (1928), Monstre Gai and Malign Fiesta (both 1955), set in the afterworld. A fourth volume of The Human Age, The Trial of Man, was begun by Lewis but left in a fragmentary state at the time of his death. He also wrote two autobiographical volumes, Blasting and Bombardiering (1937) and Rude Assignment: A Narrative of my Career Up-to-Date (1950).

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Group X Vorticism

Artworks

Wyndham Lewis, ‘Workshop’ c.1914–15

Wyndham Lewis Workshop

c.1914–15
On display at Tate Modern part of Shape of Light T01931
Wyndham Lewis, ‘The Crowd’ ?exhibited 1915

Wyndham Lewis The Crowd

?exhibited 1915
On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art T00689
Wyndham Lewis, ‘Ezra Pound’ 1939

Wyndham Lewis Ezra Pound

1939
N05042
Wyndham Lewis, ‘Composition’ 1913

Wyndham Lewis Composition

1913
N05886
Wyndham Lewis, ‘The Surrender of Barcelona’ 1934–7

Wyndham Lewis The Surrender of Barcelona

1934–7
N05768
Wyndham Lewis, ‘Edith Sitwell’ 1923–35

Wyndham Lewis Edith Sitwell

1923–35
On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art N05437
Wyndham Lewis, ‘A Canadian War Factory’ 1943

Wyndham Lewis A Canadian War Factory

1943
T00135
Wyndham Lewis, ‘Vorticist Composition’ 1915

Wyndham Lewis Vorticist Composition

1915
T00625
See all 24

Artist as subject

William Roberts, ‘The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel: Spring, 1915’ 1961–2

William Roberts The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel: Spring, 1915

1961–2
T00528
Michael Ayrton, ‘Portrait of Wyndham Lewis’ 1955

Michael Ayrton Portrait of Wyndham Lewis

1955
T07133
William Roberts, ‘Study for ‘The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel - Spring 1915’’ c.1961–2

William Roberts Study for ‘The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel - Spring 1915’

c.1961–2
View by appointment T12704
William Roberts, ‘Study for ‘Homage à Stulik’’ c.1948

William Roberts Study for ‘Homage à Stulik’

c.1948
View by appointment T12657
Walter Richard Sickert, recipient: Ethel Sands, ‘Letter from Walter Sickert to Ethel Sands, addressed 8 Fitzroy Street’ [1915–16]

Walter Richard Sickert, recipient: Ethel Sands Letter from Walter Sickert to Ethel Sands, addressed 8 Fitzroy Street

[1915–16]
View by appointment TGA 9125/5/47
Walter Richard Sickert, recipient: Ethel Sands, ‘Letter from Walter Sickert to Ethel Sands’ [March 1914]

Walter Richard Sickert, recipient: Ethel Sands Letter from Walter Sickert to Ethel Sands

[March 1914]
View by appointment TGA 9125/5/61
Walter Richard Sickert, recipient: Ethel Sands, ‘Letter from Walter Sickert to Ethel Sands, addressed London County Council, Westminster Technical Institute’ [c.December 1915]

Walter Richard Sickert, recipient: Ethel Sands Letter from Walter Sickert to Ethel Sands, addressed London County Council, Westminster Technical Institute

[c.December 1915]
View by appointment TGA 9125/5/80
Vanessa Bell, recipient: Duncan Grant, ‘Letter from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant’ [11 June 1923]

Vanessa Bell, recipient: Duncan Grant Letter from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant

[11 June 1923]
View by appointment TGA 20078/1/44/121
Vanessa Bell, recipient: Duncan Grant, ‘Letter from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant’ [15 February 1930]

Vanessa Bell, recipient: Duncan Grant Letter from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant

[15 February 1930]
View by appointment TGA 20078/1/44/167
See all 19

Film and audio

Modernity in Conflict - Michael Nath

Michael Nath, Lecturer in the Department of English, University of Westminster, examines the contribution of Wyndham Lewis and the Vorticist ...

Features

Wyndham Lewis, ‘Workshop’ c.1914–15
Art Term

Vorticism

The vorticists were a British avant-garde group formed in London in 1914 with the aim of creating art that expressed ...

Wyndham Lewis, ‘Workshop’ c.1914–15
Art Term

Rebel Art Centre

The Rebel Art Centre was founded by Wyndham Lewis in London in March 1914 as a meeting place for artists ...

Wyndham Lewis, ‘Edith Sitwell’ 1923–35
Art Term

Group X

Group X was a short lived group of British artists formed by Wyndham Lewis in 1920 to provide a continuing ...

Lost Art: Wyndham Lewis
Read

Lost Art: Wyndham Lewis

Jennifer Mundy

The Gallery of Lost Art is an immersive, online exhibition that tells the fascinating stories of artworks that have disappeared ...

William Roberts oil painting of a group of Vorticists at a Parisian restaurant in 1915
Tate Etc

Women that a movement forgot: The Vorticists I

Brigid Peppin

The short-lived Vorticist movement was often seen as a predominantly masculine, muscular affair, but as one of the descendents of ...

Black and white photograph of Henri Gaudier Brzeska carving hieratic head of Ezra Pound.
Tate Etc

Drawing the vortex: The Vorticists II

Mark Antliff

The British avant-garde group was formed in London in 1914 by the artist, writer and polemicist Wyndham Lewis. Their idea ...

Wyndham Lewis, ‘Red Scene’ 1933–6
Tate Papers

Wild Geese Over the Mountains: Melodrama and the Sublime in the English Imaginary 1933–9

Ian Patterson

The Sublime Object
Howard Kanovitz Kyle Morris Larry Rivers Donald Sanders and Kenneth Koch in a plane prepare for Kochs play The Red Robins at the Guild Halls John Drew Theatre in Southampton New York 1977
Tate Etc

Image/ word: Poets and visual artists

Vincent Katz

Vincent Katz on poets and visual artists; Tate Etc essay, summer 2009 issue
Wassily Kandinsky Concerning the Spiritual in Art 1912 Cover of the original German version
Tate Etc

Every work of art is the child of its time, often it is the mother of our emotions"

Adrian Glew

Kandinsky

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