Stanton MacDonald-Wright
(1890-1973)

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Stanton MacDonald-Wright was an American painter, best known for collaboratively founding the Synchromist movement along with Morgan Russell. Synchromism is an abstract movement that emphasizes the use of “chords of color” to evoke the sensation of music. Synchromism was the first abstract movement initiated by American artists.

MacDonald-Wright was born in Charlottesville, Virginia but spent much of his childhood in California, after his family relocated to Santa Monica in 1900. MacDonald-Wright realized his interest in art at an early age and enrolled at the Los Angeles Art Students League.

After only two years of study in California, MacDonald-Wright decided to receive further training in Europe, and enrolled at the Sorbonne, the Académie Julian, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Colarossi in France. MacDonald-Wright studied optical sciences and color theory under leading instructors, including Michel-Eugène Chevreul, Hermann von Helmholtz, and Ogdon Rood. MacDonald-Wright drew from not only his instructors, but also the current art trends in Paris, primarily the Cubist movement. While abroad, MacDonald-Wright met fellow American painter, Morgan Russell, who would soon become his partner in developing the Synchromist movement.

In 1913, MacDonald-Wright and Russell organized their first Synchromist exhibition in Munich, Germany. The artists used bold and vibrant colors, unlike the usual cubist painters of the time. In the next several years, their work continued to become less representational and more abstracted.

As World War I began to set in motion, MacDonald-Wright returned to the United States, exhibiting in New York before returning to Los Angeles. MacDonald-Wright ‘s modernist work made a major impact on the California art scene, and local art institutions revered him. In 1935, MacDonald-Wright became the director of the Southern California division of federal Works Projects Administration (WPA) that was enforced during the Great Depression era. MacDonald-Wright had the opportunity to work on several social projects, including murals in Santa Monica City Hall.

As MacDonald-Wright worked less on fine art and more on civic projects, his style became more traditional and reminiscent of the American Regionalist movement. MacDonald-Wright also made efforts in filmmaking, writing and taught an art history course at the University of California in Los Angeles. After World War II, MacDonald Wright continued to travel, maintaining studios in Japan and Italy.

The work of MacDonald-Wright in now in major museum collections around the world. MacDonald-Wright’s contributions to Synchromism made a major impact on modernism in Europe and in the United States. Do you think you own a painting by MacDonald-Wright? Contact us. We are the experts on Synchromist works by Stanton MacDonald-Wright.