Lionel George Henricus Wendt (3 December 1900 – 19 December 1944) was a pianist, photographer, filmmaker and critic from Sri Lanka. He was the leader of ‘43 Group, a collective of Sri Lankan artists. The Lionel Wendt Art Centre is a major art centre and theatre in Colombo, Sri Lanka, dedicated to his memory. Early life His father, Henry Lorenz Wendt, came from the Burgher community, composed of mixed descendants of European settlers. A Supreme Court Justice and Legislative Counsel, he was also one of the founders of the Amateur Photographic Society of Ceylon (1906). His mother, Amelia de Saram, was Sinhalese. Daughter of a district judge, she was an active social worker, organizing numerous concerts for charity. Lionel's father died when he was less than eleven years old, and his mother less than seven years later. Despite his remarkable musical talents, family traditions and customs at the time prevented Wendt from pursuing a purely musical career. Lionel Wendt was educated at S. Thomas' College before traveling to London in 1919 to study law at the Inner Temple. The English capital offered him the opportunity to pursue advanced training as a pianist at the Royal Academy of Music under the direction of Oscar Beringer. These years in Europe were an opportunity for him to discover the artistic currents of the time, including surrealism and cubism. Returning to his native island in 1924, Wendt did not practise law much, although he was registered as a lawyer at the Supreme Court of Ceylon. He soon gave public piano recitals, both as a soloist and as an accompanist. He gave up the law for music in 1928 and developed an interest in avant-garde music. Lionel Wendt became the figurehead of the only circle of avant-garde artists of the time, which included his childhood friend, the painter George Keyt. In his autobiography, the poet Pablo Neruda, Chilean consul in Colombo in 1928-1929, writes: "I found out that the pianist, photographer, critic, and cinematographer Lionel Wendt was the central figure of a cultural life torn between the death rattles of the Empire and a human appraisal of the untapped values of Ceylon." Lionel Wendt and his friends tried to contribute to the formation of a modern national consciousness. They felt deeply that the future of their country could not be built by ignoring an ancient heritage or by rejecting the Western way of life, but