Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882 -1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited Blast, the literary magazine of the Vorticists.
Lewis was educated in England at Rugby School and then, from 16, the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, but left for Paris without finishing his courses.
Three years later, he moved to Paris where, after discovering Cubism and Expressionism, he created a new movement – Vorticism.
Vorticism is a short-lived but ambitious movement that aimed to give artistic expression to the vitality and raw dynamism of the machine age.
Vorticist paintings emphasized ‘modern life’ as an array of bold lines and harsh colors drawing the viewer’s eye into the center of the canvas and vorticist sculpture created energy and intensity through ‘direct carving’.
Lewis was a radical and wanted to challenge compositional harmony in painting.
His Vorticist cityscapes, represented as bold geometric lines that criss-crossed his canvases at sharp angles, were perfectly matched to the noisy, chaotic and claustrophobic London in which he was living.
More of Wyndham Lewis’ bold paintings can be found at https://wyndhamlewissociety.org/.
Humoring the Goddess 
‘Fantastically’ fascinating, Claudia …
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I love the lines and edges to all his work. Never seen anything quite like it.
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I like abstracts with definition and colour …
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I love how you phrased that. I do too.
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Damn… caught up in the movement, even if there doesn’t appear to BE ANY. The faces are watching me watch them, as I expect them to shape shift right in front of me. woo!
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I’m not familiar with all the art movements, but I definitely have never heard of Vorticism, and as I talk with you and others that responded I am learning more and more the depth of this artist. All the better for future artists, no?
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Sharp edges…the work does speak to the way he saw London. A rough chaos. I wonder if he had problems because this is a stark reality and he seems overwhelmed by life.
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Just looking at his picture he looks like a rogue to begin with — one article said he was arrogant and argued and challenged and barely had any friends. I love your observation about sharp edges. And now I see how it correlates to his painting. Thank you for opening my eyes even more.
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