Percy Wyndham Lewis co-founded the Vorticist movement in 1913, synthesizing the structural rigidity of Cubism with the kinetic energy of Futurism. An artist and writer of restless intellectual ambition, he edited the Vorticist publication Blast and navigated the early twentieth-century avant-garde while maintaining a contentious relationship with the established literary and artistic circles of his time.
Artistic Formation and Vorticism
Born in 1882 in Amherst, Lewis attended the Rugby School and later the Slade School of Fine Art. After spending his youth traveling through Europe, he settled in London in 1908. By 1912, he had moved beyond the Camden Town Group to exhibit Cubo-Futurist illustrations for Timon of Athens. His development of Vorticism represented a formal critique of modern life, articulated in the manifesto published in Blast and through his expressionist drama Enemy of the Stars.
Twenty questions, eight minutes on the clock, and a percentile measured against everyone who has taken it. No sign-up.
Take the IQ test →Service and Official Art
In March 1916, Lewis joined the Royal Garrison Artillery under the Derby Scheme. He served as a bombardier before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 330th Siege Battery. Stationed on the Flanders coast and at the Ypres Salient, his wartime experiences fueled both his writing and his visual art. Following his military service, he served as an official war artist, producing A Canadian Gun-pit and A Battery Shelled.
Literary Contributions and Later Career
Lewis established himself as a novelist with the publication of Tarr in 1918, a work central to literary modernism. His later literary output included The Wild Body and The Apes of God. Beyond his novels, he edited journals such as The Tyro and The Enemy, often using these platforms to challenge contemporary cultural ideologies. He documented his earlier life in the autobiography Blasting and Bombardiering, remaining an active painter and critic until his death in 1957 in London.
Fast facts
- Born: 1882, Amherst
- Died: 1957, London
- Education: Rugby School; Slade School of Fine Art
- Primary Movements: Modernism; Vorticism
- Key Literary Works: Tarr; The Apes of God; The Wild Body
- Military Rank: 2nd Lieutenant
- Burial Site: Golders Green Crematorium
Questions readers ask
What was the Vorticist movement?
Vorticism was a movement founded by Lewis that combined the structural intensity of Cubism with the dynamism of Futurist art to critique modernity.
Did Lewis serve in the First World War?
Yes, he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery, eventually working as an official war artist for the Canadian and British governments.
Achievements
- Movement: vorticism and modernism
