An important precursor of the Vorticist movement was the painter Roger Fry, who gave impetus to a reorientation of visual art in Britain with the exhibitions Manet and the Post-Impressionists in 1910 and Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition of English, French and Russian Artists in 1912.
Subsequently, Italian Futurism had a considerable influence on the development of Vorticism; for example, on Percy Wyndham Lewis, one of the central protagonists of Vorticism and its home, the Rebel Art Centre in London. Wyndham Lewis was among the first artists involved in Roger Fry's artist's workshop Omega Workshops, founded in 1913, but he left after a short time in dispute.