Stanton Macdonald-Wright
1890–1973
In 1913 Stanton Macdonald-Wright established himself as a pioneer of modernist abstraction. That year, he debuted an abstract, kaleidoscopic method of painting that he had developed together with his colleague Morgan Russell while living in Paris. They called their movement Synchromism, a term that means with color. Rooted in various color theories, particularly those of Macdonald-Wright and Russell’s teacher, the Canadian artist Ernest Percyval Tudor-Hart, Synchromism identified color as the generating element of form, volume, and movement. For both artists, color was an abstract tool for conveying mood and emotion; as with musical scales, a spectrum of colors could be combined to achieve a harmonious arrangement. Macdonald-Wright and Russell earned critical acclaim following their landmark Synchromist exhibitions in Paris and Munich in 1913, but the advent of World War I led to the end of their partnership.
By 1916, Macdonald-Wright was back in the United States, where he eschewed his earlier nonobjective style in favor of semiabstract, vibrantly hued compositions with suggestions of figurative imagery, such as Oriental – Synchromy in Blue-green. Years later, the artist recalled that this painting was based on a group of figures smoking opium, a subject related to his incipient interest in Eastern aesthetics and philosophy (he would spend the later decades of his career teaching these subjects at the University of California, Los Angeles). As in a hazy, drug-induced reverie, the hints of figurative imagery—a face, an arm, a thigh— seem to appear momentarily before dissolving into the layered, shifting planes of form and gently feathered hues.
Introduction
Stanton Macdonald-Wright (July 8, 1890 – August 22, 1973), was a modern American artist. He was a co-founder of Synchromism, an early abstract, color-based mode of painting, which was the first American avant-garde art movement to receive international attention.
Wikidata identifier
Q2348151
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed April 12, 2025.
Introduction
Along with fellow artist, Morgan Russell, Stanton Macdonald-Wright developed the style they called Synchromism, where color was to generate form. American artist. Comment on works: Landscapes
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, aesthetician, director, muralist, painter, still life artist
ULAN identifier
500007154
Names
Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, S. Macdonald Wright, Stanton Macdonald Wright, Macdonald-Wright, S. Macdonald-Wright, Stanton McDonald-Wright, Stanton MacDonald Wright, Stanton Macdonald- Wright, s. macdonald-wright
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 12, 2025.
