Stanton Macdonald-Wright
| Stanton Macdonald-Wright | |
|---|---|
 Airplane Synchromy in Yellow-Orange, 1920, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
|
| Born | July 8, 1890 Charlottesville, Virginia |
| Died | August 22, 1973 (aged 83) |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Abstract art, Painting |
| Movement | Synchromism |
| Influenced | Thomas Hart Benton |
Stanton MacDonald-Wright (July 8, 1890 – August 22, 1973), was an American modern 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.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Stanton MacDonald-Wright was born in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1890.[2] His first name, Stanton, was in honor of the women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton; he later hyphenated his last name himself after repeatedly being asked if he were related to the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.[2] He spent his teen years in Santa Monica, California, where his father ran a seaside hotel.[2] An amateur artist as well as a businessman, Macdonald-Wright's father encouraged his artistic development from a young age and secured him private painting lessons.[2] His brother, Willard Huntington Wright, was a writer and critic who gained greater fame by writing the Philo Vance detective novels under the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine.
[edit] Synchromism: Europe and New York
Macdonald-Wright moved to Paris in 1909,[2] to study at the Sorbonne, Académie Julian, École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Colarossi. He and fellow student Morgan Russell studied with Canadian painter Percyval Tudor-Hart between 1911 and 1913. They were deeply influenced by their teacher's color theory, which connected the qualities of color to those of music, as well as by the works of European modernists such as the Impressionists, Cézanne, and Matisse that placed a great emphasis on color.[1] MacDonald-Wright and Russell developed Synchromism around this time, seeking to free painting from a literal description of the world, and believing that painting was a practice akin to music.[1] MacDonald-Wright collaborated with Russell in painting abstract "synchromies," and staged Synchromist exhibitions in Munich in June 1913, Paris in October 1913, and New York in March 1914.[1] These established Synchromism as an international influence in modern art into the 1920s.[1]
Moving back to the U.S. after the outbreak of World War I, MacDonald-Wright separated from Russell but both continued to work in the Synchromist style.[1] They held another Synchromist exhibit in New York in 1916, and received significant promotion and critical support from Macdonald-Wright's brother, Willard.[3] In 1916, he was the key organizer of the Forum Exhibition of American Modernists in New York.[4] He exhibited his work at Alfred Stieglitz's famed 291 gallery in New York in 1917.[4]
[edit] California and later life
Unable to secure a living in New York,[2] Macdonald-Wright moved to Los Angeles in 1918.[4] In 1920, with Stieglitz's support, he organized the first exhibition of modern art in L.A., "The Exhibition of American Modernists" at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art, showing his own large-scale abstract synchromies as well as works by John Marin, Arthur Dove, and Marsden Hartley.[4] In 1922, he became the head of the Los Angeles Art Students League.[4] He also became involved in local theater, serving as the director of the Santa Monica Theater Guild as well as writing and directing plays, designing sets, and acting himself.[2]
He would remain a major force in the L.A. art scene for the next several decades. He was the director of the Southern California division of the federal Works Project Administration from 1935 to 1942, and personally completed several major civic art projects, including the murals in Santa Monica City Hall. After World War II, MacDonald-Wright became interested in Japanese art and Japanese culture, which led to the renewal of synchromism in his work. He taught art for decades at UCLA and also kept studios in Kyoto, Japan and Florence, Italy.
By the 1950s, Macdonald-Wright's work had fallen into obscurity.[3] A renewed interest in American modern art led to his rediscovery, and he was given retrospectives at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1956; at the Smithsonian National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, DC in 1967; and at the Art Galleries of UCLA in 1970.[3]
MacDonald-Wright died in Pacific Palisades, California in 1973, at the age of 83.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Roberts, Norma J., ed. (1988), The American Collections, Columbus Museum of Art, p. 94, ISBN 0-8109-1811-0.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Terra Foundation for American Art, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, http://collections.terraamericanart.org/view/people/asitem/items$0040null:39/0, retrieved September 16, 2011.
- ^ a b c Wright, Bob (February 1984), "Art Diary: Stanton Macdonald-Wright", Orange Coast Magazine: 140–141.
- ^ a b c d e Mathews, Nancy Mowll, ed. (2001), American Dreams: American Art to 1950 in the Williams College Museum of Art, Hudson Hills, p. 141, ISBN 9781555952105.
[edit] Other works referenced
- Synchromism: Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald-Wright, New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries, 1999.
[edit] Further reading
- South, Will; Agee, William C.; Coffey, John William; Park, Marlene (2001), Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchronism, North Carolina Museum of Art, ISBN 0882599852.
- Hoopes, Donelson F. (1979), Stanton MacDonald-Wright: Paintings 1903-1973, Los Angeles: Arco Center for Visual Art.
