A Canadian War Factory 1943

Wyndham Lewis made this painting of a Canadian war factory with what looks like oil on canvas, and it's this crazy combo of browns, reds, and whites that makes the whole scene feel both real and surreal. I imagine him, brush in hand, wrestling with the chaos and heat of the factory floor, trying to make sense of the workers and the machinery. What was Lewis thinking as he painted those flames licking up around the figures? Was he trying to capture the raw energy, or maybe something darker, like the destructive power of war? That worker in the foreground, all caught up in chains and metal, feels like a nod to the Futurists and their obsession with the machine age. You can almost feel the grit and the heat radiating off the canvas. It's like Lewis is saying, "Here's the world we've built, full of beauty and terror, all mixed up together." And, as painters do, he leaves us to sort it all out.