Bryan Wynter

Bryan Wynter (1915–1975) was a leading figure in post-war British abstraction and an important member of the St Ives group. Beginning as a painter of the Cornish landscape, he gradually moved towards abstraction during the 1950s, developing richly worked paintings in which interlocking brushstrokes, colour and movement evoke the natural world without describing it directly.

Born in London, Wynter studied at Westminster School of Art and then at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1938 to 1940. During the Second World War he was a conscientious objector, working first on land drainage and later with the zoologist Solly Zuckerman. After the war he settled near Zennor in Cornwall, where the landscape became the central source of his work.

Wynter was closely involved in the formation of the post-war St Ives community. In 1946 he became a founder member of the Crypt Group and later joined the Penwith Society of Arts. Living for many years in a remote cottage above Zennor, he immersed himself in the rugged landscape, sea and weather of west Cornwall. He formed close friendships with fellow artists in the area, including Paul Feiler, and the two shared a deep engagement with the Cornish landscape while developing very different approaches to abstraction. Wynter’s early paintings remained recognisably landscape-based, often depicting boats, cliffs and the bare forms of the surrounding countryside.

The Redfern Gallery played a major role in Wynter’s early career. His first solo exhibition was held at the gallery in 1947, followed by further one-man exhibitions in 1948, 1950, 1953, 1955 and 1957. Redfern also showed his monotypes in the first exhibition of the Society of London Painter-Printers in 1948 and included him in the influential Metavisual, Tachiste, Abstract exhibition of 1957, which brought together some of the most adventurous abstract painting then being produced in Britain.

By the mid-1950s Wynter’s work had become increasingly abstract. In 1956 he began producing the large non-figurative paintings for which he is best known, constructed from dense networks of brushstrokes that appear to grow organically across the surface. Although no longer descriptive, these works remained deeply connected to nature. Wynter described his approach as looking at landscape “from the other side”, seeking to convey processes of growth, movement and transformation rather than outward appearance.

His paintings from the later 1950s and early 1960s brought him increasing international recognition and were shown widely in exhibitions of contemporary British art.

During the early 1960s Wynter also began experimenting with three-dimensional kinetic constructions, which he called IMOOS — Images Moving Out Onto Space. These works used suspended painted forms and mirrors to create constantly changing visual relationships, extending his longstanding interest in movement and perception beyond the painted surface.

Wynter continued to paint throughout the later 1960s and early 1970s, producing increasingly fluid and spacious abstractions while maintaining his close engagement with the Cornish environment. He died in Penzance in 1975.

A major retrospective of his paintings, kinetic works and works on paper was organised by the Arts Council and shown at the Hayward Gallery in 1976. His work was subsequently included in Tate’s landmark exhibition St Ives 1939–64 in 1985, and Tate St Ives presented a further retrospective in 2001–02. The Redfern Gallery also returned to Wynter’s work with a dedicated exhibition in 2002.

Wynter’s work is held in major public collections including Tate, the Arts Council Collection and the British Council Collection.

The Redfern Gallery’s association with Wynter began at the outset of his professional career and continued through a succession of important exhibitions during the 1940s and 1950s, helping to establish him as one of the leading British painters of his generation.