Stanton MacDonald-Wright was born July 8, 1890, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Soon after his 10^th birthday, the family relocated to Santa Monica, California where his father ran a seaside hotel and experimented in amateur painting. Stanton MacDonald-Wright’s father encouraged artistic expression throughout the young artist’s childhood, funding private painting lessons and other opportunities for MacDonald-Wright to fulfill his potential as an painter. This early practice landed him in The Art Students League of Los Angeles. Following a couple years at the institute MacDonald-Wright began his studies in Europe where he started to experiment in color theory, the very basis of his future career. At the peak of his career, MacDonald-Wright directed and executed Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the realistic style of American Regionalism. Of these works the most notable were the murals for the Santa Monica City Hall and Public Library (1935). While known for his artistry, MacDonald-Wright slowly steered from painting to pursue film-making, writing, and teaching art history at the University of California. However, the start of the Depression pushed MacDonald-Wright back toward his original talent.

While enjoying a permissive childhood, MacDonald-Wright possessed a rebellious and stubborn temperament. In 1907 the young artist was expelled from Harvard Military School. Thankfully this expulsion led to a fulfilling trip to Europe where MacDonald-Wright found his artistic inspiration. MacDonald-Wright wanted to leave for Paris so he could immerse himself in European art and expression. In doing so, MacDonald-Wright studied at the Sorbonne, the Académie Julian, the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Colarossi. It was at these institutions where MacDonald-Wright studied with fellow student Morgan Russell. The duo consumed themselves with the study of color theory of the optical scientists Michel-Eugène Chevreul, Hermann von Helmholtz, and Ogdon Rood. MacDonald-Wright was also inspired by the way abstract color could represent the harmony or mayhem of music. MacDonald-Wright was also influenced by the works of the Impressionists, Cézanne, and Matisse where the focus of their art was the vibrant juxtaposition of colors against one another. MacDonald-Wright and his partner Morgan Russell took their passions and created the concept of Synchromism. Synchromism is the idea that painting, like music, should be free of representation. In creating Synchromism MacDonald-Wright and Russell had created the first American abstract art movement.

The first Synchromism exhibition was held in Munich, Germany in 1913 and of course featured the work of MacDonald-Wright and Russell. Although, Synchromism preached a lack of representation, by the 1920s MacDonald-Wright’s work morphed into having some traditional, representative style. Nonetheless, MacDonald-Wright stayed true to his early Synchromatic style exclaiming,

“I strive to divest my art of all anecdote and illustration and to purify it to the point where the emotions of the spectator will be wholly aesthetic, as when listening to good music…I cast aside as nugatory all natural representation in my art. However, I still adhered to the fundamental laws of composition and created my pictures by means of color-form, which, by its organization in three dimensions, resulted in rhythm” (The Forum Exhibition: Selections and Additions).

References:

Harrell, Anne, “The Forum Exhibition: Selections and Additions,” Whitney Museum of American Art (May 18-June 22, 1983), p. 23.

“Stanton Macdonald-Wright.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Mar. 2016. Web. 04 May 2016.