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Lot Essay
Wyndham Lewis moved to the USA in 1939, under the impression that life abroad would be easier for him. The outbreak of War made the return to England impossible and he began to find life away from home increasingly lonely and uncertain. He was continually marred by personal setbacks, work was proving difficult to come by and his letters spoke of the isolation he felt, an emotion which is mirrored in this work.
Lebensraum I: The Battlefield (1941) clearly refers to the bloody aftermath left in the wake of Hitler's desire to create Germany's 'Lebensraum', the physical space occupied by a population. The present work reflects a more personal experience of the 'spatial unit'. This disfigured, contorted form with its eyes glaring and mouth open in despair, conveys the sense of isolation and suffocation that Wyndham Lewis spoke of as a stranger living abroad: 'In this place it is as if someone were sitting on your chest having taken care to gag you first'.
(see J. Meyers, The Enemy, London, 1980, p.265).
Lebensraum I: The Battlefield (1941) clearly refers to the bloody aftermath left in the wake of Hitler's desire to create Germany's 'Lebensraum', the physical space occupied by a population. The present work reflects a more personal experience of the 'spatial unit'. This disfigured, contorted form with its eyes glaring and mouth open in despair, conveys the sense of isolation and suffocation that Wyndham Lewis spoke of as a stranger living abroad: 'In this place it is as if someone were sitting on your chest having taken care to gag you first'.
(see J. Meyers, The Enemy, London, 1980, p.265).