River Daemon is one of Wynter’s ‘new consciousness’ series of paintings; his mature and probably best known style of work in which he seeks to remove conscious preconception from the path that the evolving painting takes. Consistent with this, the paintings were not titled until completed and then on the basis of the form and sense they evoked, albeit within the framework of an overarching interest in water flow and rivers.
Waddington Galleries, London, where acquired 1984.
Christies 21 June 2016, Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale - Lot 157.
Sothebys 17 March 2020, Made in Britain - Lot 211.
Exhibitions
Zurich, Galerie Charles Lienhard, Bryan Wynter, January 1962, cat. no.10, illustrated p.16.
'Some Aspects of Contemporary British Paintings 1963', an exhibition organised by the British Council, and toured in Canada by the National Gallery of Canada. The 56 paintings (27 in Iceland) were selected by a committee chaired by Sir Philip Hendy, Director of the National Gallery, London. Featured artists were Alan Davie, Terry Frost, Roger Hilton, Peter Lanyon, Ben Nicholson, William Scott, Graham Sutherland, Keith Vaughan and Bryan Wynter. Exhibition tour: 03 Jan 64 - 26 Jan 64: Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Art Gallery Of Ontario. 04 Feb 64 - 01 Mar 64: Canada, Québec, Montreal Museum Of Fine Arts. 13 Mar 64 - 05 Apr 64: Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, National Gallery Of Canada. 13 Apr 64 - 03 May 64: Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Winnipeg Art Gallery. 12 May 64 - 31 May 64: Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, Art Gallery of Alberta. 04 Jun 64 - 20 Jun 64: Iceland, Reykjavik, National Museum. 09 Jun 64 - 30 Jun 64: Canada, Regina, Saskatchewan, Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina. 11 Sep 64 - 10 Nov 64: Denmark, Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum Of Modern Art, Denmark. April 1965-October 1966: subsequently the exhibition travelled to Belgrade, Skopje, Zagreb, Cairo, Alexandria and Gibraltar.
In 1959 Wynter had moved to a new London dealer, Victor Waddington with his first exhibition of 28 paintings in March of that year. Between 1959 – 1961 Wynter’s works were influenced in construction, palette and title by his interest in sea sports and exploration; aqualung diving, kayaking and open water swimming. Oceanic 1959, Kayak 1961 and our painting, River Daemon 1960 are examples.
Of the artist’s process, Michael Bird wrote (quite revealingly in the context of the present work): “Wynter approached a new painting with a comparable absence of plan or preconception, but his working practise was methodical rather than impulsively open-ended. He often began with a dense underpainting of black stokes. The next stage involved simplifying this complex all-over design, either with over-painting certain areas with household paint or applying a coloured glaze which might then suggest further possibilities. Subsequent layers of larger or smaller paint strokes (or ‘brushsigns’) were added, often with weeks or months between each stage.”
River Daemon has been exhibited in many public galleries internationally including the National Gallery of Canada (and across Canada's provincial capitals), Reykjavik’s National Museum of Iceland, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Zurich’s Galerie Charles Lienhard; and toured to Denmark, Belgrade, Skopje, Zagreb, Cairo, Alexandria and Gibraltar.
In 2024 Meeting Place by Bryan Wynter set a new world record price in a public auction for the artist, selling at USD 533,400 + taxes.