Lewis, Wyndham - Anne Quema (essay date 1999)
Anne Quema (essay date 1999)
SOURCE: “Introduction: Modernism Reclaimed,” in The Agon of Modernism: Wyndham Lewis's Allegories, Aesthetics, and Politics, Bucknell University Press, 1999, pp. 11-29.
[In the following excerpt, Quema identifies Lewis as an unfairly neglected master of modernist literature.]
Metaphors of gigantic, totemic statues buried in dust, preserved in their primitive state, and awaiting to be discovered by the curious archeologist of earlier twentieth-century art haunt the critical imagination of those who have taken the time to read Wyndham Lewis's texts and examine his visual works. Invariably, a monograph on Lewis's artistic activities begins with the almost ritualistic statement that in him we have an ignored or simply unknown genius who should be recognized as a major contributor to the earlier development of modern art.
Although few in number, most of the successful critical studies of Lewis's works...
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