Synchromism

Synchromism, art movement begun by American painters Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald-Wright in 1913–14 that focused on colour. At the time, the two artists were living in Paris, painting abstract works they called “synchromies.” In a 1916 statement on Synchromism, Macdonald-Wright described how he purified his paintings to create effects through rhythmic colour forms, explaining that “color, in order to function significantly, must be used as an abstract medium.” Although the multicoloured forms in their paintings strongly resembled the whirling circles of the Orphist paintings of Robert Delaunay and František Kupka, Russell and Macdonald-Wright claimed that their work was original.

In 1913 the first Synchromist painting, Russell’s Synchromy in Green, was exhibited at the Paris Salon des Indépendants. In the same year, the Synchromists held their first exhibition, in Munich, followed by one in Paris at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. In March 1914 their works were shown at the Carroll Gallery, New York City. Synchromism briefly attracted several American painters, among them Thomas Hart Benton, Patrick Henry Bruce, and Andrew Dasburg. Although Russell and Macdonald-Wright abandoned Synchromism about 1919, returning to representational works, they were important pioneers of American abstract art.