This abstract artist is today best-known for his dramatic Vorticist design that shows his commentary on industrialism and modern life.
Which 20th-century artist was named:
"A buffalo in wolf’s clothing" (by art critic Robert Baldwin Ross)?
Percy Wyndham Lewis
Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) was a 20th-century painter born in Canada and raised in Britain. He was one of the first British artists to be interested in Cubism and Expressionism, although he ended up developing his own unique style of art. At the outbreak of World War I, he was appointed official war artist by the British and Canadian governments and much of his art seems to center on ideas related to militarism. Wyndham Lewis had a passion for technology, aviation, speed, and exhilaration.
Vorticism
Wyndham Lewis co-founded the Vorticist movement and was the leading painter of this style. He also edited the Vorticists' short-lived journal, “BLAST," which although lasted for only two editions is today considered a milestone in modern art.
Vorticism is the geometric design – expressed in abstract compositions of bold lines and sharp angles – that is his attempt to represent industrialism and military endeavors. He found the strong structure of Cubism appealing, but said it did not seem "alive" compared to Futurism, which he believed lacked structure. In Vorticism he effectively combined the two movements in a bold and dramatic critique of modern life and in his attempt to represent industrialism for which he is best known today.
His Career
In the early 1930s Wyndham Lewis’ career was negatively affected because of his affinity for Hitler and Nazism since he came to believe that fascism alone, rather than communism or capitalism, appropriately revered artists and intellectuals. By 1939, however, Wyndham Lewis withdrew his support for Hitler.
Ultimately his artistic style became more representational and less abstract. He ended up feeling strongly opposed to the extreme abstraction that was represented, for example, by Jackson Pollock and the school of Abstract Expressionists.
His Personal Life
Wyndham Lewis was an eccentric individual who valued remaining far above the mass of humanity.
Regarding his personal life, Wyndham Lewis’ father abandoned him and his mother after moving them to England, thus forcing his mother to work as a washerwoman for the rest of her life. Wyndham Lewis himself stated that he detested children, refused to have children with his wife, yet had several children by his mistresses that he never acknowledged or supported.
Critic Robbie Ross
Robert Baldwin Ross was an art critic and art expert best known perhaps as the devoted friend of Oscar Wilde and the executor of Wilde's estate. He was highly critical of the post-impressionist painters. Perhaps his “buffalo in wolf’s clothing” comment about Wyndham Lewis best portrays the fractious personality of this 20th-century intellectual writer and artist.
Sources:
Bailey, Colin J. The Art Quiz Book: 2000+ Questions on Painters and Paintings. Station Press: Scotland, 1995.
Grove Dictionary of Art. Oxford University Press, 2007.
