Did You Know …

that Synchromism is the only modern art movement to be developed by American artists before World War I?

While living in Paris, American artists Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Morgan Russell were exposed to Modernist innovators such as Pablo Picasso and Francis Picabia. As a result, around 1913, MacDonald-Wright and Russell developed a style of painting they called Synchromism.

Synchromism was based on their studies of color theory. MacDonald-Wright and Russell hoped to create the visual sensation of projecting and receding forms through the manipulation of color, rather than through the traditional devices of linear and atmospheric perspective. A Synchromist exhibition organized by Stanton MacDonald-Wright in New York City in 1914 introduced the style to the United States.

This Synchromist painting from the Smithsonian American Art Museum by Stanton MacDonald-Wright reflects the tenets of the style, though it was created later in his career.

Pictured: Stanton Macdonald-Wright, 1890–1973, Raigo, 1955, oil, 72 x 77 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.