One of the great ornaments of FORTUNE at this period. Lewandowski was born to Polish parents in Milwaukee in 1914 and went to the Layton School of Art studying under Gerrit Sinclair until 1934 (he was later to return as a member of the teaching staff). In 1938 his work was shown in the influential display of American art at the Jeu de Paume Paris.He was active in the Federal Art Project with Post Office Murals in Minnesota (Caledonian Post Office, Hog Raising, 1942) , Illinois (Hamilton, On the River, 1941, Threshing Grain 1942) , and Wisconsin (Stoughton Post Office, Air Mail Services) . Along with others who contributed to the visual identity of the magazine he was experienced in designed maps and camouflage for the Armed Services. He taught after the War at Florida State, and then in an emotional return to Layton as Director (Milwaukee Journal 1954) , but continued his commercial career for publication. He is usually included within lists of the American Precisionist painters. He was indeed a great friend of Charles Sheeler, but this tends to obscure his highly personal sense of design and composition.

"I remember when I was a boy, a good deal of time was spent listening to shoptalk...all of my relatives were engaged in industry...so the depiction of industrial power technology and efficiency has always had a great attraction for me." West Bend Art Museum. "Our machines are as representative of our culture as temples and sculpture were of the Greeks. They are classically beautiful and represent physically the progress our civilisation has made." ( the artist quoted by Valerie Ann Leeds).The first major retrospective of his work is planned for June 2010 at the Rutledge Gallery, Winthrop College of Visual and Performing Arts. "Edmund Lewandowski, Precisionism and Beyond". Greenville Museum advertises a catalogue "Edmund Lewandowski Fifty Years of Painting" June to July 1990.

In 1943 the Milwaukee Journal noted Lewandowski's show at the Down town Gallery in New York, with Jack Levine, Mitchell Siporin, Ralston Crawford and Louis Guglielmi, setting him within a neat context. The article mentions he is a member of the city's Art Commission.