Bryan Wynter was a painter and teacher. Wynter studied at the Slade, and was co-founder of Crypt Group, St Ives, which became the Penwith Society of Arts. He began his career as a landscape painter in a neo-romantic vein but turned to abstraction in the late 1950s. In 1962 he began making constructions he called IMOOS (Images Moving Out Onto Space), consisting of contrasting pairs of painted shapes, hung in front of a parabolic mirror leaving them to rotate freely. These were some of his most remarkable works. Using a parabolic mirror, he would hang contrasting pairs of painted shapes, which rotated freely. Their reversed reflections enlarged, appearing to move in opposite directions[1].
He was born September 8, 1915 in London. He died February 2, 1975 at Penzance, Cornwall.
References
External links
Further reading
- Bryan Wynter 1915-1975: catalogue of an exhibition 16 October – 15 November 2002, introduction by Mel Gooding. Jonathan Clark Fine Art, London, 2002. - Gooding gives a deep analysis of the influences on Wynter, in cluding his friendship with Patrick Heron. However, there is little biographical material in the three A4 pages. Bibliographical notes. 16 works illustrated in colour.
- Bryan Wynter (St.Ives Artists series) by Chris Stephens. Tate Gallery Publishing (1999) ISBN 1-85437-293-9
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Path Through Wood 1950
Monoprint on paper
image: 375 x 292 mm
on paper, print
Purchased 1990
P77361
The highly stylised and decorative trees and branches in this are typical of Wynter's style before his move towards in 1956. Wynter lived and worked in Cornwall and as part of the '' practised an art deeply rooted in the artist's experience of . (From the display caption August 2004)
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Mars Ascends 1956
Oil on canvas
support: 1527 x 1013 mm
painting
Presented by Fello Atkinson 1981
T03289
The title of this may refer to the rising dominance of the colour Mars red. However, the picture also reflects Wynter’s interest in organic processes and the collective unconscious.
For this painting Wynter applied each calligraphic mark in response to the preceding marks. This procedure was based on a scientific theory about the growth of organic forms. In theory, imposing an order derived from nature reduced the role of the artist’s ego in making a picture, and allowed the picture to grow naturally out of the artist’s subconscious.
(From the display caption September 2004) | |
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Seedtime 1958-9
Oil on canvas
support: 1422 x 1118 mm frame: 1460 x 1158 x 45 mm
painting
Purchased 1962
T00558
Wynter painted 'Seedtime' over several months between 1958 and 1959. Its fragmented and calligraphic design demonstrates the artist's interest in space, structure and movement. Such works brought him to public attention and gained for him a reputation nationally and internationally. Wynter acknowledged that his were no longer directly but maintained that they were still linked to nature. 'I used to be a painter. Am I still influenced by landscape? The landscape I live among is bare of houses, trees, people; is dominated by winds, by swift changes of weather, by moods of the sea...These elemental forces enter the painting and lend their qualities without becoming motifs'. (From the display caption September 2004) | |
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Riverbed 1959
Oil on canvas
unconfirmed: 1524 x 1220 mm frame: 1540 x 1235 x 38 mm
painting
Purchased 2003
T07991
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Meander I 1967
Oil on canvas
support: 1680 x 2134 mm frame: 1700 x 2153 x 45 mm
painting
Purchased 2003
T07978
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Saja 1969
Oil and acrylic on canvas
support: 2130 x 1685 mm
painting
Purchased 1982
T03362
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Green Confluence 1974
Oil on canvas
support: 1825 x 1215 mm
painting
Purchased 1982
T03363 | |
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Thank you to Tate Gallery London and the estate of Bryan Wynter. |
Detailed Biography of Bryan Wynter
Bryan WYNTER (1915-1975)
Subterrain I 1961
Oil on canvas
151 x 75 cm
(Acquired August 1964)
During his career as an artist in Cornwall, Bryan Wynter went through a number of significant stylistic shifts, from 'neo-romantic' landscape painter, to the distinctive, highly abstract fragmented 'veil' works like 'Subterrain I', through 'kinetic' moving sculptures to a final lighter, lyrical abstract painting style, often seemingly influenced by the movement of water.
Brief Biography
1915 – born in London into a quite prosperous family with farming and laundry business interests.
1933 – trainee in family business, spending time in Zurich.
1937-8 – attended Westminster School of Art.
1938-40 – studied at the Slade School of art (based in Oxford following evacuation).
1939 – registered as a Conscientious Objector, spent the war years working on land drainage and for a time, looking after the monkeys belonging to Solly Zuckerman, the biologist (and member of the Hepworth, Nicholson et al 'Hampstead' circle).
1940 – moved to St Ives.
1945 – settled in Zennor, made figurative works based in landscape of West Penwith, in a 'neo-romantic', sometimes cubist influenced style, subjects included gulls, fishing boats, the small local settlements and the harsh, bare landscape.
1946 – co-founder of the Crypt Group.
1947 – first showing with the Redfern Gallery, London.
1951-55 – taught at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham and continued exhibiting at the Redfern.
1956 – dramatic change of style with first abstract works made while working in London in a loaned studio, a calligraphic veil or grid like system of painted marks was introduced, but the source of inspiration was the same as it had always been - the natural landscape of Cornwall but, as he wrote, approached '...from the other side'.
1959 – married Monica Harman.
1960 – first 'kinetic' IMOOS work made, exhibited at Waddington's, London.
1961 – suffered first of number of heart attacks, though throughout the 60s he continued to enjoy underwater-diving and white water canoeing.
1964 – moved to St Buryan and returned to painting, with another change of style, though still largely abstract.
1967-74 – governor and advisor to the 2-D course at Falmouth College of Art.
1976 – retrospective exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery.
In Denys Val Baker's 1950 book 'Paintings from Cornwall' Wynter's biographical entry read 'Most powerful stimulus: the Cornish Landscape, which, he claims, meets the painter halfway..Likes cats, canoeing and Cornish cream. Hates bills, balance sheets and biographical notes. Favourite hobby: painting.'
'My paintings are non-representational but linked to the products of nature in as much as they are developed according to laws within themselves and are a static record of the processes that have brought them about. A stream finds its way over rocks. The force of the stream and the quality of the rocks determine the stream's bed... There are no streams or rocks in my paintings but a comparable process of dynamic versus static elements has attended their development and brought about their final form.' (Bryan Wynter, 1960)
Further Information (all external websites will open in a new window)
Bryan Wynter 1915-1975 [introduction by Mel Gooding]. (Jonathan Clark Fine Art, London. 2002)
Chris Stephens - Bryan Wynter. (Tate Gallery Publishing, London. 1999)
Bryan Wynter, 1915-1975: paintings, kinetics and works on paper. (Arts Council of Great Britain, London. 1976)
http://collection.britishcouncil.org/html/artist/artist.aspx?id=18284
www.cornwall.gov.uk
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BRYAN WYNTER 1915 –1975
IMOOS 18/4 1972-73
Gouache on card, wire, parobolic mirror & electric light, set within a wooden painted box
22 x 20 x 25.75 in / 55.8 x 50.8 x 65.5 cm
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BRYAN WYNTER 1915 –1975
IMOOS 18/1 1972-73
Gouache on card, wire, parobolic mirror & electric light, set within a wooden painted box
22 x 20 x 25.75 in / 55.8 x 50.8 x 65.5 cm
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/jonathanclarkfineart.com Thank you Jonathan Clark Fine Art
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