Educated at Rugby School and the Slade School of Art at University College, London, Lewis then continued his art studies in Paris and spent some time traveling in Europe before returning to England in 1908. In 1909, he published an account of his travels in France in the English Review. He produced some minor art over the next few years, but it wasn't until 1913 that he began to develop his style of geometric abstraction for which he became famous. His close friend Ezra Pound coined the term Vorticism to represent this style. In 1914, Lewis founded Blast magazine with Pound, the idea of which was to promote the new movement in art and literature. Contributors included Rebecca West, Ford Maddox Ford and Lewis himself, who contributed a play and several essays. The First World War brought the project to an end after only two issues. Lewis served as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on the Western Front and served as a spotter on forward observation posts. Later in 1917, he was appointed official war artist contributing works to both the Canadian and British governments. In 1918, his first novel, Tarr, was published after having been serialized in The Egoist 1916-17. Following the war Lewis settled back into his career as author/artist. Over the ensuing years he started a couple of magazines, namely Tyro and The Enemy, and most of the 1920's and early 1930's was spent in writing, producing essays, articles and works of non-fiction such as Hitler (1931), in which he praised Hitler and The Hitler Cult (1939), in which he condemned him. He returned to painting in the late 1930's and produced some of his best work, especially his portraits. He spent World War II in Canada and the U.S., returning to England in 1945. A pituitary gland tumor caused him to go blind in 1951 and this naturally brought an end to his painting although he continued to write until his death in 1957. His other works include Enemy of the Stars (1914), The Art of Being Ruled (1926), Time and Western Man (1927), The Apes of God (1930), Snooty Baronet (1932), Doom of Youth (1932), One-Way Song (1933), Men Without Art (1934), The Revenge for Love (1937), The Writer and the Absolute (1952) and The Red Priest (1956). |
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