Wyndham Lewis

A Reading of Ovid (Tyros)

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About this artwork

This is the largest and most important of Lewis's satirical 'Tyros' paintings. 'Tyro' means a novice or beginner, but Lewis expanded on this definition, calling him 'a new type of human animal like Harlequin or Punchinello...The Tyro is raw and underdeveloped; his vitality is immense, but purposeless, and hence sometimes malignant.' Lewis was often critical of his artistic contemporaries. He described the 'Tyros' series of paintings as a challenge to the 'Arts-for-Arts-sake dilettantism' that he saw in French painting and in the work of the English Bloomsbury group, such as Duncan Grant.

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
    Wyndham Lewis (1882 - 1957) English
  • title:
    A Reading of Ovid (Tyros)
  • date created:
    1920 - 1921
  • materials:
    Oil on canvas
  • measurements:
    165.20 x 90.20 cm; Framed: 181.00 x 107.00 x 8.00 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Purchased 1977
  • accession number:
    GMA 1685
  • gallery:
  • subject:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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Wyndham Lewis

Wyndham Lewis