Lionel Wendt (1900–1944) was a Sri Lankan photographer, pianist, and arts patron who contributed to the development of modernist art in colonial Ceylon. Trained as a lawyer and concert pianist in England, he turned seriously to photography in the 1930s. Wendt experimented with photomontage, solarization, photograms, and double printing. His work drew on European modernism while remaining closely engaged with the cultural life of Ceylon. In 1943, he helped establish the ’43 Group, an association of artists formed in opposition to the conservative Ceylon Society of Arts. The group sought to develop a modern visual language that could engage with modernism while remaining rooted in Sri Lankan culture and experience.
His work was shown internationally during his lifetime, including a 1938 solo exhibition at the Camera Club in London, and has since been included in Documenta 14 and held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate, the Rijksmuseum, and the National Gallery of Australia.
