Edward Alexander Wadsworth (1889-1949)

Painter and wood engraver, born in Cleckheaton, Yorkshire. On leaving school, he studied engraving for one year in Munich, spending his spare time at the Knirr Art School also in Munich. He studied art formerly at Bradford School of Art and the Slade. Wadsworth participated briefly in the Omega Workshops, showed with the Friday Club, the Arts League of Service and about this time exhibited with the short-lived Grafton Group alongside Etchells, and sculptor Gaudier-Brzeska. He then broke away with Wyndham Lewis from establishment art and took part in the Rebel Art Centre. His knowledge of German enabled him to contribute a translation of Kandinsky's 'Uber das Geistige in der Kunst' (Concerning the Spiritual in the Art) for Blast issue No 1 in 1914. Wadsworth whose work was reproduced in Coterie and Art & Letters also signed the Vorticist Manifesto and helped to forge new ground with a non-figurative style.During World War I he served