Until his death in 1957, Wyndham Lewis was a radical force in British art and literature. He was a key figure in modernism and the founder of Britain’s only true avant-garde movement—Vorticism. As a master of art and letters he earned the respect of T S Eliot and Augustus John in his lifetime and has provided inspiration for numerous other figures in art, literature, and music, including the sculptor Henry Moore, the blues rock experimentalist Captain Beefheart, and pop music pioneer David Bowie. Yet in spite of this impressive cultural legacy, Lewis’s reputation has been shadowed by his brief and regretful praise of Hitler in the 1930s. Cast out of favor for the second half of the 20th century, Lewis is only recently beginning to experience a revival of interest.
 
Published to accompany an exhibition of Lewis’s work at IWM North in Manchester—the first major exhibition in over forty years—this book offers a renewed perspective on this  intriguing and unusual artist and presents fifty of his most significant pieces in stunning full color.
 

Richard Slocombe is a senior curator at the Imperial War Museums.