Design for a screen

Maker

(artist)
1882-1957

Title

Design for a screen

Date of Production

1913

Medium

graphite and watercolour on thin wove paper now laid down on Japanese tissue, with pinholes at corners

Dimensions

Height: 51 cm
Width: 38.6 cm

Accession Number

D.1958.PD.58.1

Mode of Acquisition

Pamela Diamand, gift, 1958

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Wyndham Lewis was invited to join the Omega Workshops by Roger Fry and Clive Bell after they had seen his work at an exhibition in 1912. He produced several designs for Omega rugs, lampshades and screens. The fluid, yet monumental, forms of Lewis's figures are similar to those produced by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell during the same period. However, this work also relates to Lewis's personal preoccupations around this time. In his work of 1912, he had depicted muscular bodies with undersized heads, which represented 'primitive' man, limited in intelligence and driven by his physical desires. This sheet shows only three of the four figures proposed for the screen; the fourth appears on a separate page.

Lewis's relationship with Omega was short-lived. Following a bitter dispute with Fry in October 1913, he walked out of the Workshops, taking three other artists with him. He went on to establish The Rebel Art Centre, which set itself in opposition to the Bloomsbury group, and which led in turn to the formation of the Vorticist movement.

Notes

There is a similar design for a folding screen in the V&A (E.735-1955).

Provenance

Roger Fry (1866-1934); by descent to his daughter Pamela Diamand; Pamela Diamand Gift 1958

Exhibition History

The bone beneath the pulp - Drawings by Wyndham Lewis, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/10/2004-13/02/2005

Roger Fry and the Omega Workshops, The Courtauld Gallery (Prints and Drawings Study Room), 01/08/1990-02/12/1990

El Grup de Bloomsbury, Sala d'Exposicions de la Caixa, Barcelona, 01/09/1986-01/10/1986 ...More

The Omega Workshops 1913 to 1919, Crafts Council Gallery, London, 18/01/1984-18/03/1984

Wyndham Lewis, Manchester City Art Gallery & Manchester & England, 01/10/1980-15/11/1980; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 29/11/1980-11/01/1981; City Art Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland, 23/01/1981-07/03/1981 ...Less

Literature

Wyndham Lewis, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh, 1980-81
cat. no. 29
ill.

The Omega Workshops 1913 to 1919, Crafts Council Gallery, London, 1984
cat. no. D26

El Grup de Bloomsbury, Sala d'Exposicions de la Caixa, Barcelona, Spain, 1986
cat. no. 46
ill. ...More

Beyond Bloomsbury - Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19, Courtauld Gallery, London, 2009
Appendix, no. 45
ill. on p. 174 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Collector's mark: none.

Inscription: Verso: lower left, blue ink: “HHF. 263”.

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