The color of music

By LAMEESE ELQURA
Contributing Writer
Imagine the mind dancing to the symphonic sounds of the colors in a painting. That's exactly what American painter Stanton Macdonald-Wright aims to achieve through "synchromism," a style he invented in which colors are treated like music notes that can be combined into chords to produce harmonic results.

"Color, Myth and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism" is a very comprehensive traveling exhibit of his works currently on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Museum docent Linda Polensky admitted that before the exhibit's opening she expected it to be "the sleeper of the year."

The amount of light and life among all the works, however, make it everything but boring.

Stanton Macdonald-Wright, a native to California, is known as the first real modern American artist. He had an eventful life, traveling all over the world, and consequently created an array of astounding and varied works.

Southern California was the birthplace of the Synchromism Theory, created by Macdonald-Wright and a fellow artist named Morgan Russell.

The products of this rather complicated theory, which involved arranging colors on a scale and choosing certain combinations to produce the desired feel, can be seen in a variety of Macdonald-Wright's early works on display. In "Still Life Synchromy," he went beyond ordinary still life, making darker colors recede into space and bringing forward the lighter colors, to create a unique and appealing view of ordinary objects.

Macdonald-Wright later traveled to Paris, a bustling mecca of modern art at the beginning of the 20th century, where he came into contact with the latest movements, such as fauvism and cubism, and met up with avant-garde figures as Matisse and Rodin. Here he picked up inspiration and encouragement to continue being innovative, as he was the only American at the time to have developed his own "-ism." Though the world's outlook was not exactly positive during the start of WWI in 1914, Macdonald-Wright nevertheless remained a prolific artist who produced some of the most optimistic looking paintings of the time. The candy colored shapes of "Conception Synchromy," arranged in a lively curving pattern in the youthful key "yellow minor," make WWI and other such serious adult matters seem galaxies away.

The move back to Santa Monica, Calif., the artist's hometown, meant significant changes in Macdonald-Wright's works. By comparing the similarly titled works, "Synchromy in Violet" (1916) and "Synchromy in Purple" (1919) it is clear that change to the more lax, fair weather region of southern California caused him to lighten his palette and include more white in the synchromies.

At this point Macdonald-Wright also became very fascinated with Asia - its art, language and philosophy - and attempted to harmonically combine Eastern and Western features in his works. The set of "Dragon Trail sketches" reveal this attempt, as these studies in pencil combine the delicate portrayal of nature, reminiscent of Chinese scroll painting, with the Western subject of the Santa Monica Mountains.

During the 1930's, Macdonald-Wright had the opportunity to use his art for public good as he participated in the Federal Arts Project. He designed several large works to decorate the interior of the Santa Monica Public Library, including a seven panel piece entitled "Prologue: Technical and Imaginative Pursuits of Early Man." This monumental work, taking up an entire wall of the exhibit, depicts the development of man with the usual energy and bright color of the Father of Synchromism.

In his later years, a wiser Macdonald-Wright returned to doing synchromies, keeping the geometric shapes and movement, but softening the colors. Works such as "Flight of the Butterfly" reflect his deep involvement in Asian art and philosophy, emanating quiet, contemplative tones like those of the Japanese monasteries where he spent time.

Finally, an entire room is dedicated to Macdonald-Wright's "Haiga Portfolio," a set of twenty woodblock prints on Japanese rice paper illustrating ancient haiku. Here he might have achieved success in combing the Eastern and Western elements, as the ideas of the Asian poetry are thoughtfully translated into pictorial works that could be understood by the Western audience.

"Color, Myth and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism" is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, through Oct. 28. LACMA hours are noon to 8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, noon to 9 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and closed Wednesday. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for students. For more information, call (323) 857-6000 or visit www.lacma.org.

Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 144, No. 19 (Monday, September 24, 2001), beginning on page 7 and ending on page 18.