Ocean Park

Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism, LACMA Press Release 2001 August 5 through October 28, 2001, 1973

     "LOS ANGELES, APRIL 2001-The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) explores the art of one of America's early modernist masters, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, in the first in-depth retrospective of his work. On view to the public August 5 through October 28, 2001, Color, Myth and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism examines the evolution of his art from his important Synchromist works, continuing with his masterful Asian-influenced paintings, and offering a selection of the stunning synchromies painted in the final years of his life. The exhibition includes more than 60 works spanning six decades. This show was organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Synchromism

      "Among his many accomplishments, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, along with fellow American painter Morgan Russell, fathered the Synchromism movement. Convinced that color and sound were equivalent phenomena and that one could "orchestrate" the colors in a painting the way a composer arranged notes and chords in a musical composition, they developed a system of painting based on color scales. The system entailed constructing form and depth in a painting through advancing and reducing hues. Their ensuing "synchromies" were some of the first abstract non-objective paintings in American art.

     "Leaving his California home behind, Macdonald-Wright arrived in Paris in 1907 and immediately began attending classes at the Sorbonne and studying painting at several traditional academies. Feeling that these schools stifled his creativity, he soon abandoned them in favor of the radical new approaches of Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism, and Orphism that were being developed to challenge traditional art. It was at that time that he met Morgan Russell and was introduced to Matisse, Rodin, Percyval Tudor-Hart, a Canadian painter and color theorist, and collectors Gertrude and Leo Stein. Macdonald-Wright and Russell exhibited their new aesthetic first in Munich, then in Paris in 1913, and the following year in New York. Synchromism became the first American avant-garde movement presented in the international arena.

      "As a result of World War I, Macdonald-Wright returned to the United States and settled in New York City. There he continued to exhibit his synchromist works at some of the most progressive galleries in the United States: Stieglitz's Gallery 291, the Montross Gallery, and Charles Daniel Gallery. He was also instrumental in organizing, in 1916, the landmark Forum Exhibition that helped establish the role of modernism in American art.

Macdonald-Wright in California

      "Disappointed with the New York art scene, Stanton Macdonald-Wright returned to Los Angeles in 1918 and immediately plunged into a wide variety of projects that challenged a local art community still enthralled with Impressionism. He easily established himself as the foremost modernist in the region and, more than anyone, encouraged the development of a distinctively West Coast response to modernism.

      "He taught at the Chouinard School of Art (later renamed California Institute of the Arts), directed the Art Students League of Los Angeles, lectured and published his ideas on art, aesthetics and philosophy, and eventually taught at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Macdonald-Wright is also credited with organizing the first exhibition of modern art in Southern California, the 1920 Exhibition of American Modernists at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art (the forerunner of LACMA). Throughout his life, Macdonald-Wright was one of the foremost advocates of modern art on the West Coast, organizing numerous shows of his work and that of other progressive artists.

      "Macdonald-Wright's painting in Southern California reflected new influences and aspirations. Central to his work was his increasing absorption in all things Asian. In addition to his study of Buddhist and Taoist philosophies, he continued his Chinese studies, frequented Chinatown, and attended traditional Chinese theater. Inspired by Eastern art and thought, Macdonald-Wright's work was now characterized by more subtle and elegant compositions: his landscapes, based on California's many hills and valleys, are rendered in the delicate style of Chinese scroll painting and his still lifes feature formal simplicity and identifiably Asian motives. He maintained that East and West were equal halves of an as yet unrealized whole, and that a harmonious union could only be achieved through the marriage of Western logic and technology to Eastern philosophy and imagination. He not only tirelessly expounded on the inevitable unity of the two cultures, but also attempted to fuse Eastern and Western elements in his own work. One of his most successful examples is Yin Synchromy, No. 3 (1930) that depicts an idealized nude female figure (based on Michelangelo's Creation of Adam and Eve in the Sistine Chapel) floating within an evanescent mountainscape reminiscent of Japan.

      "Not even the Great Depression could slow Macdonald-Wright's enthusiasm for work or his prodigious output. Under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, he painted the Santa Monica Public Library mural cycle, eight panels of which are included in this exhibition. The mural cycle was the most extensive such project ever undertaken in Southern California. Because of his significance in the area, he was appointed director of the Los Angeles District of the Southern California Region of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. In addition to promoting the project through lectures and exhibitions, Stanton Macdonald-Wright also designed numerous mosaics for local buildings.

Modernist to Ancient Sage

      "In the final decades of his life, Stanton Macdonald-Wright revisited his beloved Synchromism, incorporating his life experience, his belief in Eastern philosophy, and a deep understanding of Japanese and Chinese art. These later synchromies, such as Liaison intime (Intimacy), 1955, reveal the subtle influence of Asian aesthetics on the design and color harmonies of his by now famous abstractions. Until his death in 1973 he continued to paint, exhibit, and write prolifically. In fact, Macdonald-Wright insisted that his later synchromies were imbued with a more vital, spiritual life than his more recognized early masterpieces. He traveled extensively, often to Asia. During these years, Macdonald-Wright transformed his self-image from maverick modernist to ancient sage.

      "Although Macdonald-Wright's place in the history of American art was secure and remained recorded in histories about early modernism, the full breadth of his work has been virtually ignored. Three earlier retrospectives have been devoted to the artist (1956, Los Angeles County Museum; 1967, National Collection of Fine Arts; and 1970, Wight Gallery, UCLA); however, this exhibition will present the first balanced and comprehensive examination of his life's work. It will demonstrate not only the creativity of Synchromism, but also Macdonald-Wright's crucial role in the dissemination of modernism in Los Angeles. Featuring more than 50 important oil paintings, a wealth of archival material including an original copy of Macdonald-Wright's 1924 Treatise on Color (of which only 60 copies were published), catalogues from important exhibitions featuring and organized by Macdonald-Wright, rare photographs of the artist and contemporaries, and a selection of rare prints and works on paper, this exhibition presents a long-overdue acknowledgment of an artist whose achievements and aspirations established him as an early modern master and inspired several generations of artists.

Macdonald-Wright's mural in Santa Monica Public Library.

     "When Stanton Macdonald-Wright arrived in Santa Monica in 1900, he and it were very young. He was 10. The little beach town had just marked its 25th year and had only 3,000 residents.

   "Archibald Wright and Annie Wright moved to Santa Monica from Charlottesville, Virginia with their two sons, Willard, 13, and Stanton, 10, when Wright, having sold his Virginia properties, took a job as manager of the Arcadia Hotel, then said to be the finest hotel on the Southern California coast. 

   "A number of remarkable people have made their marks in Santa Monica, but arguably none is quite as remarkable as Stanton Macdonald-Wright.

   "On August 4, the first full retrospective of Macdonald-Wright's work will open at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He was one of America's early modernist masters, and the exhibition (which will run through October 28), Color, Myth and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism examines the evolution of his art from his important Synchromist works, continues with his masterful Asian-influenced paintings, and offers a selection of the stunning synchromies painted in the final years of his life. Spanning six decades, the exhibition includes more than 60 works and much archival material. 

Synchromism

     "Macdonald-Wright, with fellow American painter Morgan Russell, fathered the Synchromism movement. Convinced that color and sound were equivalent phenomena and that one could "orchestrate" the colors in a painting the way a composer arranged notes and chords in a musical composition, they developed a system of painting based on color scales. The system entailed constructing form and depth in a painting through advancing and reducing hues. Their ensuing "synchromies" were some of the first abstract non-objective paintings in American art.

A Prince of a Boy

   "Young Stanton believed that he was a prince, read voraciously, studied with tutors, caroused with other renegades, attended the Art Students' League of Los Angeles, worked briefly and unmemorably in a doctor's office and department store and, at 17, married the first of his five wives. 

   "His wife was older than he, and rich, and they soon left Santa Monica for Paris where he attended classes at the Sorbonne and studied painting at several traditional academies. But he soon abandoned formal study to explore the radical new approaches of Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism, and Orphism that were then emerging and challenging traditional art. It was then that he met Morgan Russell and was introduced to Matisse, Rodin, Percyval Tudor-Hart, a Canadian painter and color theorist, and collectors Gertrude and Leo Stein. 

   "Macdonald-Wright and Russell exhibited their new aesthetic first in Munich, then in Paris in 1913, and the following year in New York. Synchromism became the first American avant-garde movement that was recognized in the international arena.

   "At the onset of World War I, Macdonald-Wright returned to the United States and settled in New York City, where he continued to exhibit his synchromist works at some of the most progressive galleries in the United States: Stieglitz's Gallery 291, the Montross Gallery, and Charles Daniel Gallery. He was also instrumental in organizing, in 1916, the landmark Forum Exhibition that helped establish the role of modernism in American art.

Macdonald-Wright in California

   "Disappointed with the New York art scene and detesting the city, Macdonald-Wright returned to Los Angeles in 1918 and immediately plunged into a wide variety of projects that challenged a local art community still under the spell of Impressionism. Though he was literally penniless, in the midst of a divorce and overcoming an opium addiction, he quickly established himself as the foremost modernist in the region and, more than anyone, encouraged the development of a distinctively West Coast response to modernism. 

   "He taught at the Chouinard School of Art (now the California Institute of the Arts), directed the Art Students League of Los Angeles, lectured and published his ideas on art aesthetics and philosophy, and eventually taught at UCLA. He is also credited with organizing the first exhibition of modern art in Southern California, the 1920 Exhibition of American Modernists at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art (the forerunner of LACMA). 

   "Macdonald-Wright's painting in Southern California reflected new influences and aspirations. Central to his work was his increasing absorption in all things Asian. In addition to his study of Buddhist and Taoist philosophies, he continued his Chinese studies, frequented Chinatown, and attended traditional Chinese theater. Inspired by Eastern art and thought, Macdonald-Wright's work was now characterized by more subtle and elegant compositions. His landscapes, based on California's many hills and valleys, were rendered in the delicate style of Chinese scroll painting and his still lifes featured formal simplicity and identifiably Asian motifs. 

   "He maintained that East and West were equal halves of an as yet unrealized whole, and that a harmonious union could only be achieved through the marriage of Western logic and technology to Eastern philosophy and imagination. He not only spoke endlessly of the inevitable unity of the two cultures, but also attempted to fuse Eastern and Western elements in his own work. 

  "L.A art critic Merle Armitage described Macdonald-Wright as "a formidable man." Distinguished director/writer John Huston, a most formidable man himself, once said, "S. Macdonald-Wright furnished the foundation of whatever education I have."

Macdonald-Wright's Santa Monica Projects

     "Curiously, the Great Depression which seized America in the 1930s gave Macdonald-Wright a unique opportunity to create some large-scale works in Santa Monica. Under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, he painted an extraordinary mural cycle in the Santa Monica Public Library, eight panels of which are included in the LACMA exhibition. It was the most extensive such project ever undertaken in Southern California. At a City Council meeting to approve the project, about $950 was collected to pay for the requisite materials. Macdonald-Wright devoted 18 months to the mural which traces the history of the region from prehistoric times to the birth of the movies, for which he was paid little or nothing, 

   "As shown in the photograph on this page, the mural was far grander than its setting. 

   "When the old Public Library was torn down, the mural-which Macdonald-Wright had wisely painted on removable panels-was dispatched by the City to the Smithsonian Institution where it has resided ever since. Not long ago, City Councilman Ken Genser proposed that a place be made for the mural in the Main Library addition.

  "Because of his significant place in the Los Angeles art world, Macdonald-Wright was appointed director of the Los Angeles District of the Southern California Region of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. In addition to promoting the project, Macdonald-Wright worked with the architects on various projects and designed numerous mosaics for local buildings-including the murals in the lobby of the Santa Monica City Hall, itself a WPA project, as well as painting the fire curtain mural and designing the mosaic in the lobby of Barnum Hall, the theater on the Santa Monica High School campus.

   "The City Hall murals are done in petracrome, a process Macdonald- Wright developed which combines cement with crushed bits of marble, tile and granite. One of the City Hall murals depicts the arrival of the Spanish explorers in Southern California and the Mexican settlement. The other features such 1930s elements as sailboats, airplanes and road races. 

   "Built in 1937, Barnum Hall is one of the finest examples of the elegant Streamline Moderne architecture which flourished in Los Angeles in the 1930s. Like City Hall, it was a project of the federal government's Works Progress Administration and Federal Arts Project. 

  "And so it was that in one of this country's darkest decades Macdonald-Wright made bright and enduring works in Santa Monica's library, City Hall and high school auditorium. Today, City Hall and Barnum Hall head the roster of distinguished regional landmarks. 

Modernist to Ancient Sage

   "In the final decades of his life, Stanton Macdonald-Wright returned to Synchromism, incorporating his life experience, his belief in Eastern philosophy, and a deep understanding of Japanese and Chinese art. 

   "He lived in Santa Monica for much of his life, though he decamped to an apartment on Pontius Avenue in Westwood for a while, and later bought a house in Pacific Palisades. Until his death in 1973 he continued to paint, exhibit, and write prolifically and traveled frequently, usually to Asia. 

   "Three earlier retrospectives have been devoted to the artist (1956, Los Angeles County Museum; 1967, National Collection of Fine Arts; and 1970, Wight Gallery, UCLA); however, this new LACMA exhibition presents the first balanced and comprehensive examination of his life's work, demonstrating not only the creativity of Synchromism, but his crucial role in impressing modernism on Los Angeles. 

   "Always an iconoclast, Macdonald-Wright set out on a singular road as a boy and never wavered. Self-educated, astonishingly self-confident, contrary, he not only created a diverse, singular and influential body of work, he changed the course of American art. 

   "His older brother, Willard Huntington Wright [1888-1939] is worthy of note, too. After being kicked out of Harvard for drinking absinthe in class, he went abroad to study in Paris and Munich. At 22, he became the L.A. Times' literary critic and was promptly labeled "the boy iconoclast of Southern California" for his assaults on L.A. (i.e., "Hypocrisy, like a vast fungus, has spread over the city's surface"). In short order, he was named editor of New York's Smart Set. He also wrote several books of art criticism. Then, after a bout of drug addiction and a nervous breakdown, Wright literally reinvented himself. Under the pseudonym, S.S. Van Dine, he wrote a series of mysteries about a sophisticated, even effete Manhattan sleuth, modeled on himself, Philo Vance, who was featured in 27 motion pictures 

   "The LACMA exhibit was organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art. 

   "LACMA is open Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m., Friday from noon to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and closed Wednesday. Call (323) 857-6000, or visit the web site at www.lacma.org."

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Stanton MacDonald-Wright [1890-1973] Artist, Educator, Administrator

http://www.tobeycmossgallery.com/macdonald_wright_bio.html

http://rhythmiclight.com/archives/timeline.html

Stanton Macdonald-Wright [1890-1973] Chronology

• 1890 Born in Charlottesville, Virginia
• 1900 Moves to Santa Monica, California
• 1906 Began study at Art Students League of Los Angeles, meets Rex Slinkard
• 1907 Expelled from Harard Military School, Los Angeles
• 1908 Marries Ida Wyman
• 1909 Goes to Europe; becomes close friend of T. H. Benton and Henri Focillon, who introduces him to Asian art and thought; attends Academy Julian and others
• 1911 Tours Europe; meets Morgan Russell; together they study color theory leading to founding of Synchromism.
• 1913 Exhibits in Munich and Paris with Morgan Russell; returns to New York; separates from his wife
• 1914 Exhibits in New York with Morgan Russell; both return to Paris, transferring to London because of the War
• 1915/18 Returns to New York; teaches; exhibits at Anderson and Daniel Galleries
• 1919 Returns to Los Angeles
• 1920 Marries Jeanne Redman; creates color film (destroyed); Teaches and exhibits at Los Angeles County Museum; Exhibits in studio with Vysekal, Russell, Benton, Wm Yarrow, Preston Dickinson
• 1922 Lectures at Chouinard Art Institute
• 1923 Teaches at Chouinard; Teaches and directs Art Students League ; studies Asian arts and language. Organizes "The First Exhibition of the Group of Independent Artists of Los Angeles" at the Taos Building, on West First Street
• 1924 Writes and published 'A Treatise on Color' regarding synchromist theory
• 1925 Exhibits at Los Angeles County Museum, the Hollywood Library Art Gallery
• 1927 'Synchromism' exhibition with Morgan Russell, Los Angeles County Museum and Oakland Art Gallery
• 1930 Exhibits at Santa Monica Public Library
• 1931 Exhibits with Russell at California Palace of the Legion of Honor
• 1932 Exhibits with Russell at Stendahl Art Galleries and Los Angeles County Museum
• Exhibits at An American Place, New York "S. Macdonald-Wright:13 New Paintings"
• 1934 Group exhibition at Los Angeles Art Association
• 1935 In "Abstract Painting in America", Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
• Hired by Federal Arts Project/Works Project Administration(FAP/WPA); becomes district supervisor.
• Completes major mural project for Santa Monica Public Library
• 1936 Group exhibition"Ten Pacific Coast Painters" at Fischer Gallery, NY ; Teaches at University of Southern California
• 1937 Group show: "Federal Art Project: Paintings, Prints" Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles ; Resigns from FAP/WPA
• 1938 Rejoins FAP/WPA as state director for Southern California
• 1939 Group exhibition "Southern California Art Project", Los Angeles County Museum
• 1942 Writes column for Rob Wagner's Script (for next four years); Teaches at Lorser Feitelson's studio; Begins teaching at UCLA
• 1942/43 Exhibits at Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles
• 1944 Exhibits at San Francisco Museum of Art with William Gaskin
• 1945 Exhibits at Stendahl Galleries with Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg
• Exhibits at Los Angeles County Museum
• 1946 Group exhibit "Pioneers of Modern Art in America" Whitney Museum, NY
• 1948 Retrospective exhibition "35 Years of Creative Painting." Art Center School, LA
• 1950 Exhibits"Three American Pioneers" w/Russell, Patrick Bruce at Rose Fried Gallery, NY
• 1951 Wife, Jeanne, dies
• 1952 Marries Jean Sutton; Awarded Fulbright; studies and teaches in Tokyo
• 1953 Exhibits "Ten American Abstract Painters 1912-1952" Rose Fried Gallery, NY
• 1954 Resigns from UCLA due to ill health
• 1955 Exhibits 'Stanton Macdonald Wright" Rose Fried Gallery, NY
• 1956 Retrospective at Los Angeles County Museum ; One person exhibition at Galerie Arnaud, Paris ; One person exhibiton at Duveen-Graham Gallery, NY
• 1957 Appears on Lorser Feitelson's NBC television show on art
• 1958 One person exhibition, Galleria Schneider, Rome, Italy
• 1960 Group "Fifty Paintings by Thirty-seven Painters of Los Angeles" by Henry Hopkins for the San Francisco Museum of Art
• 1961 Group "Directions in 20th Century American Painting" Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
• 1962 Recovers from heart attack
• 1963 Group: "The Decade of the Armory Show" Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
• 1964 One-person exhibiton "Evocation, Gods, Places,Things" Esther Robles Gallery,LA
• 1965 Begins 'Haiga' series of color woodblocks in Kyoto ; "Stanton Macdonald-Wright" Rose Fried Gallery, NY ; Group exhibition "Synchromism and Color Principles in American Painting 1910-1930" at M. Knoedler Gallery, NY ; "The Works of Stanton Macdonald-Wright" Esther Robles Gallery, LA
• 1966 Completes "Haiga" series of 20 color woodblock prints with Clif Karhu in Kyoto
• 1967 Retrospective "The Art of Stanton Macdonald -Wright" National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC
• 1970 "Stanton Macdonald-Wright: A Retrospective..." UCLA Art Galleries/Grunwald Graphic Arts Foundation ; One person exhibition: Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica
• 1972 Group exhibiton"Color & Form 1909-1914, Fine Arts Gallery,San Diego
• 1973 Dies
• 1976 Group exhibition"Painting and Sculpure in California:The Modern Era" San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Henry Hopkins
• Memorial Exhibition at Foster Harmon Gallery, Naples, Florida
• 1977 Group exhibition "Paris-New York" Centre National d'Art Georges Pompidou, Paris
• Group exhibition "Perceptions of Spirit in 20th Century American Art" Indianapolis Museum of Art
• 1978 Group exhibiton "Synchromism and American Color Abstraction 1910-1925" Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
• 1979 "Stanton Macdonald-Wright: Paintings 1903-1973" ARCO Center, Los Angeles
• 1981 Group exhibition "An American Place" The Parrish Art Museum, Southhampton, NY
• 1982 "Stanton Macdonald Wright" Forum Gallery, NY
• 1983 Group exhibition"The Forum Exhibition:Selections and Additions" Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, NY
• 1986 Group exhibition "Aspects of California Modernism 1920-1950 Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC
• 1990 Group exhibition "Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists 1920-1956" Santa Barbara Museum of Art + five other museums
• 2001 "Color, Myth and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism" North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Art

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