Editing Wyndham Lewis (section)

===Early work and development of Vorticism (1908–1915)===
[[File:Wyndham Lewis, 1912, The Dancers.jpg|thumb|260px|Wyndham Lewis, 1912, ''The Dancers'']]
[[File:Workshop-Lewis.jpg|thumb|upright|260px|Wyndham Lewis, c.1914–15, ''Workshop'' ([[Tate]], London)]]
In 1908, Lewis moved to London, where he would reside for much of his life. In 1909, he published his first work, accounts of his travels in Brittany, in [[Ford Madox Ford]]'s ''The English Review''. He was a founding member of the [[Camden Town Group]], which brought him into close contact with the [[Bloomsbury Group]], particularly [[Roger Fry]] and [[Clive Bell]], with whom he soon fell out.

In 1912, Lewis exhibited his work at the second Postimpressionist exhibition: [[Cubo-Futurism|Cubo-Futurist]] illustrations to ''[[Timon of Athens]]'' and three major oil paintings. In 1912, he was commissioned to produce a decorative mural, a drop curtain, and more designs for [[The Cave of the Golden Calf]], an avant-garde cabaret and nightclub on [[Heddon Street]].<ref name="odnb" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/mol-34-257-244|title=The programme and menu from the Cave of the Golden Calf, Cabaret and Theatre Club &#124; Explore 20th Century London|website=www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk}}</ref>

From 1913 to 1915, Lewis developed the style of geometric abstraction for which he is best known today, which his friend [[Ezra Pound]] dubbed "[[Vorticism]]". Lewis sought to combine the strong structure of [[Cubism]], which he found was not "alive", with the liveliness of [[futurism (art)|Futurist]] art, which lacked structure. The combination was a strikingly dramatic critique of modernity. In his early visual works, Lewis may have been influenced by Bergson's [[process philosophy]]. Though he was later savagely critical of Bergson, he admitted in a letter to Theodore Weiss (19 April 1949) that he "began by embracing his evolutionary system." [[Nietzsche]] was an equally important influence.

Lewis had a brief tenure at Roger Fry's [[Omega Workshops]], but left after a quarrel with Fry over a commission to provide wall decorations for the [[Daily Mail]] [[Ideal Home Exhibition]], which Lewis believed Fry had misappropriated. He and several other Omega artists started a competing workshop called the [[Rebel Art Centre]]. The Centre operated for only four months, but it gave birth to the Vorticist group and its publication, ''[[Blast (British magazine)|Blast]]''.<ref name="fluxeuropa">[http://www.fluxeuropa.com/wyndhamlewis-art_and_ideas.htm "The Art and Ideas of Wyndham Lewis"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205064138/http://www.fluxeuropa.com/wyndhamlewis-art_and_ideas.htm |date=5 February 2007 }}, FluxEuropa.</ref> In ''Blast'', Lewis formally expounded the Vorticist aesthetic in a manifesto, distinguishing it from other avant-garde practices. He also wrote and published a play, ''Enemy of the Stars''. It is a proto-absurdist, [[Expressionism|Expressionist]] drama. Lewis scholar Melania Terrazas identifies it as a precursor to the plays of [[Samuel Beckett]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Terrazas|first=Melania|date=2001|title=Tragic Clowns/Male Comedians: Wyndham Lewis's 'Enemy of the Stars' and Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'|url=http://www.wyndhamlewis.org/jwls/54-wyndham-lewis-annual-viii-2001|journal=Wyndham Lewis Annual|volume=8|pages=51|via=The Wyndham Lewis Society}}</ref>