Stanton Macdonald-Wright holds an important place in the history of modern art as one of the first 20-century artists to exhibit a non-objective painting. Studying in Paris before World War I, he and fellow American, Morgan Russell, developed a system of art, Synchromism, based on the idea of equivalences of color and music. Upon his return to the States, Macdonald-Wright participated in the emerging avant-garde scene in New York, but he soon returned to his home state California and became an energetic proselytizer for modernist experimentation. Once called the "Dean of California Painters" by TIME, new interest in his entire career has emerged after a recent exhibition.
Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, Macdonald-Wright and his family moved to Santa Monica, California, when he was ten. A prosperous hotelier, Macdonald-Wright senior paid for private art instruction for his precocious son. Just barely in his teens, young Stanton headed for adventure aboard a windjammer, only to be left off on Hawaii when he became ill. Accompanied by his wealthy wife, Macdonald-Wright went off to Paris in 1907, which would have been all abuzz about the exhibited works of Paul Cézanne. Studying at various traditional schools, such as the Academie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the artist set about finding a way to integrate the formal vocabulary of Post-Impressionism with the Old Masters, especially Michelangelo.
In 1911, Macdonald-Wright was taken by Morgan Rusell to the studio of Percyval Tudor-Hart, where the two artists would study color theory. Since the 19th century, Symbolist writers and painters had suggested equivalences across various artforms, such as color and tonal relationships in painting and music. Now Macdonald-Wright and Russell devised a system by which color was used to define form and space incorporating scales and rhythm: "When I conceive of a composition of form, my imagination creates an organization of color that corresponds." Their two-person show in Munich announced their art as Synchromism.
With the advent of World War I, Macdonald-Wright left for New York, where another Synchromist exhibition was shown in 1914 -- a show perhaps more daring than the previous year's Armory Show. Soon he became involved with other activists for modernism, being among one of the organizers of "The Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters" at Anderson Galleries. Becoming a friend of Alfred Steiglitz, Macdonald-Wright had a one-man show at the Photo-Secession Gallery. During this period, he also developed an opium habit, after being introduced to the substance by his art-critic brother Wilfred.
When Macdonald-Wright returned to California in 1918, he was penniless and in the midst of divorce. Moving in with his mother, he overcame his addiction and soon entered into a long-lived marriage with Jeanne Redman. With new vigor, Macdonald-Wright set about changing the notion of "modernism" from a vernacular combination of the Ash Can School with Impressionism. The zealous painter believed that this new and unfettered land was fertile ground for an artistic revolution.
His first achievement was the "Exhibition of Paintings by American Modernists" at the then Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art. In the same year 1923, he became teacher and director at the Los Angeles Art Students League, where he held sway for nearly two decades (the director John Huston was a student). As an instructor, he emphasized mastery of the figure with particular attention to the rhythms of the body: "expression is merely the restatement of rhythmic order from which we spring and to which we return." His passion for a new art resulted in publishing and speaking about art and art theory, most notably of which was his A "Treatise on Color" (1924). In 1925, he helped organize the Modern Art Workers.
Anticipating West Coast artists to come, he increasingly was drawn to Oriental thought and Tao, especially the concept of polarities. The notion of yin/yang was easily understood by Macdonald-Wright, who Synchromism theories had included the physical tension of "hollow and bump" as two contraposed curves. This interest led to his involvement with Chinese theater and is reflected in his productions as director of the Santa Monica Theater Guild, for which he wrote plays, directed them, and designed the sets.
Informed by Taoism, Macdonald-Wright for an extended period departed from his adherence to color scale as too materialistic. His greatest artistic achievement during the 30s was a figural mural cycle depicting progress for the Santa Monica Library. Capturing official attention, he was named Regional Director of the Federal Arts project in California and the Regional Advisor for seven western states from 1935 to 1940. As with everything else he did, Macdonald-Wright was expansive, and some artists complained that he consistently overstepped his bounds, but his influence left a large imprint upon California's public art.
In the 1920s, Macdonald-Wright also began a lifelong pursuit of a kinetic light machine. Hampered by failures and lack of funding, he finally built his Synchrome Kineidoscope in 1959, anticipating both the light shows and the intermingling of art and technology in the following decades. During the 1950s, he returned to his non-objective Synchromist style, and some see these later works as among his strongest.
During World War II, he began teaching at UCLA, where he clashed with fellow faculty members but was adored by students. Eventually he taught Asian and contemporary art there. With a Fullbright in 1952, he traveled to Tokyo, where he also taught, and for the rest of his life divided his life between Japan and California.
Further Reading: Artists in California, 1786-1940, Edan Milton Hughes, Hughes Publishing, San Francisco, 1986.; Stanton MacDonald-Wright: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1911-1970, The UCLA Art Galleries, The Grunwald Graphic Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, 1970.;
Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. II. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds., Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.
Exhibited: with Morgan Russell, he mounted the first major Synchromist exhibits in 1913, in Munich (Der Neue Kunstsalon) and in Paris; Armory Show, 1913; Carrol Gal., NYC, 1914; "Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters," Anderson Gal., NYC, 1916; "291," Photosecession Gal., NYC, 1917 (solo); S. Indp. A., 1917; Oakland Art Gal., 1927 (with Morgan Russell); LACMA, 1927, 1932, 1956 (retrospective); An American Place, NYC, 1932 (solo); Stendahl Gal., Los Angeles, 1942-43, 1945 (solos); "Pioneers of Modern Art in America," WMAA, 1946; AIC, 1947; Corcoran Gal. biennials, 1949, 1957; "III Bienal," Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1955; La Gal. Arnaud, Paris, 1956 (solo); "The New Tradition: Modern Americans Before 1940," Concoran Gal., 1963; "Roots of Abstract Art in America, 1910-1930," NMAA, 1965, 1967 (retrospective); PAFA Ann., 1966.
Works held: NMAA; Detroit Inst. Art; PMA; Grand Rapids Art Gal.; LACMA; San Diego FA Soc.; DMA; MoMA; WMAA; Santa Barbera Mus. A.; museums in England, France, Poland, Italy, Japan & others Commissions: murals for many schools, libraries & public buildings.: Pub. Lib., City Hall, High School, all in Santa Monica.
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