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Los
Angeles art world. Russell, who was a cross-dresser (though married twice), never ceased painting, either, but he experienced financial difficulties and lapsed into relative obscurity. Synchromism was seldom discussed in art-history textbooks and was not the subject of any major exhibitions before the late 1950s. Gallery exhibitions of Russell's work were infrequent. After spending almost four decades in France between 1909 and 1946, Russell retired to the United States after the war and converted to Catholicism in 1947. His painting in his later years, often of nudes, was largely figurative and displayed none of the color effects he had pioneered with Synchromism. After suffering two incapacitating strokes, he died aged 67 in a nursing home in a suburb of Philadelphia in 1953.
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211:, a fellow expatriate, in 1911, and soon after the two began developing theories about color and its primacy in the creation of a meaningful work of art. Like other young adventurous artists of the time, they had come to view academic realism as a dead-end and were pondering the possibilities of an art form that might minimize or even abandon representational content. They were particularly interested in the theories of their teacher, Canadian painter Percyval Tudor-Hart, who believed that colors could be orchestrated in the same harmonious way that a composer arranges notes in a symphony. Inspired by their experience of
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185:, whom he met at the League in January 1906, he traveled to Europe to study art in Paris and Rome. Mrs. Whitney was one of the earliest and staunchest believers in Russell's talent and provided him with a monthly stipend for several years. In 1907, after returning to New York City, Russell studied painting at the New York School of Art with the noted
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writing about his own brother and his friend, Morgan
Russell. Also, by overstating his case, Wright did little long-range good for the cause he was promoting, but his well-reviewed book did bring some informed attention to the two painters. For a time, their names appeared more frequently in the art press, and even
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launched a six-museum traveling exhibition in 1978 devoted to color abstraction that brought
Russell's name before the public again, and the purchase of his papers by collector Henry Reed, and the subsequent donation to and controversial retrieval of those papers from the Whitney Museum, brought his
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By 1920, Russell and
Macdonald-Wright had gone their separate ways, though Macdonald-Wright continued to make efforts at selling his friend's work throughout the 1920s. Macdonald-Wright moved back to his native California and established a successful niche for himself as a charismatic figure in the
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and the
Orphists, and predicted a coming age in which abstraction would supplant representational art. Synchromism, the subject of a long, adulatory chapter, is presented in the book as the culminating point in the evolutionary process of Modernism. At no time did Wright acknowledge that he was
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in 1916, those hopes were never met. Art collectors, critics, and curators prior to World War I were reluctant to embrace color abstraction and, on the rare occasions when they were open to radical new styles of art, preferred the
European modernism attached to names with greater cachet.
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in Paris. Like other young modernists eager to make a name for themselves, they issued a manifesto broadcasting their goals, plastered the kiosks of Paris with notices of their show, and hoped to create a sensation. Russell also began exhibiting at the
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123:, a provocative style of abstract painting that dates from 1912 to the 1920s. Russell's "synchromies," which analogized color to music, were an early American contribution to the rise of
246:, which was developed primarily by Russell with contributions from Stanton Macdonald-Wright. Other American painters in Paris experimenting with Synchromism at the time included
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Russell and
Macdonald-Wright had high hopes for acclaim and financial success when they introduced Synchromism to the New York art world. Though Russell exhibited in the famous
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at the
Archives of American Art are an archival collection consisting largely of letters and letter fragments written by Morgan Russell to Jean Gabriel Lemoine, art critic for
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223:, Russell and Macdonald-Wright co-founded Synchromism in 1912. In June of the same year, they held their first Synchromist exhibition at Der Neue Kunstsalon in
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274:). Similarities between Synchromism and Orphism led to later charges of plagiarism, which both Russell and Macdonald-Wright vehemently denied.
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in
Buffalo, was one of the centerpieces of the 2013 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, "Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925."
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Gradually, during the last three decades of the twentieth century, long-overdue scholarly and public attention was paid to
Synchromism. The
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Russell was born and raised in New York City. He initially studied architecture and, after 1903, became friendly with the sculptor
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For Willard Huntington Wright's campaign on behalf of his brother and Morgan Russell, see John Loughery,
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surveyed the major modern art movements from Manet to Cubism, praised the work of
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name into the news. Morgan Russell's first museum retrospective was held at the
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in New Jersey in 1990. His work is represented today in the collection of the
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The first sympathetic, extended treatment of Synchromism appeared in the book
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142:(1913–14). Oil on canvas, 41.28 cm x 33.34 cm. In the collection of the
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Biographical information for this entry is taken from Marilyn Kushner,
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115:(January 25, 1886 – May 29, 1953) was a modern American artist. With
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Handwritten letter from Morgan Russell to Jean Gabriel Lemoine, 1923
380:"Jean Gabriel Lemoine papers relating to Morgan Russell, 1921-1923"
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Jean Gabriel Lemoine papers relating to Morgan Russell, 1921–1923
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Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism
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Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism
655:. Vol. XVIII, no. 4. pp. 140–145. Archived from
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227:, followed four months later by another exhibition at Galerie
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bought a Synchromist painting, which he later donated to the
196:’s art school, frequented Gertrude Stein's salon, and met
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Synchromism: Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald-Wright
617:"Morgan Russell's Fine Art: Thank You, Michelangelo!"
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Synchromism and American Color Abstraction, 1910–1925
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American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America
305:and Matisse, denigrated "lesser Moderns" such as
293:published in 1915 by Macdonald-Wright's brother,
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686:– via Traditional Fine Arts Organization.
607:– via Traditional Fine Arts Organization.
476:Early American Modernist Painting, 1910–1935
283:Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters
281:in New York in 1913 and in the prestigious
291:Modern Painting: Its Tendency and Meaning,
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299:Modern Painting: Its Tendency and Meaning
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144:Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute
19:For the American softball player, see
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411:(New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1990).
677:"Morgan Russell and the Old Masters"
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270:(a term coined in 1912 by the poet
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741:20th-century American male artists
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358:(1914), in the collection of the
242:was an early innovation in pure
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711:20th-century American painters
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327:Whitney Museum of American Art
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675:Montclair Art Museum (2006).
644:"The Morgan Russell Archives"
474:Davidson, Abraham A. (1994).
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594:"The Early Years, 1886–1906"
553:North Carolina Museum of Art
431:North Carolina Museum of Art
356:Synchromy in Orange: To Form
155:Synchromy in Orange, To Form
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731:Painters from New York City
183:Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
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716:American abstract painters
642:Galligan, Gregory (2006).
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509:. New York: Hudson Hills.
505:Kushner, Marilyn (1990).
360:Albright-Knox Art Gallery
295:Willard Huntington Wright
153:Morgan Russell, 1913–14,
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21:Morgan Russell (softball)
736:Students of Robert Henri
567:Hollis Taggart Galleries
384:Archives of American Art
209:Stanton Macdonald-Wright
119:, he was the founder of
117:Stanton Macdonald-Wright
549:Raleigh, North Carolina
530:Loughery, John (1995).
427:Raleigh, North Carolina
388:Smithsonian Institution
352:San Diego Museum of Art
316:Baltimore Museum of Art
721:American male painters
348:Columbus Museum of Art
234:Salon des Indépendants
207:In Paris, Russell met
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622:The New York Observer
460:Kushner, pp. 191–192.
272:Guillaume Apollinaire
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42:self-portrait c. 1907
598:Montclair Art Museum
592:Kushner, Marilyn S.
543:South, Will (2001).
451:, 1992), pp. 86–104.
421:South, Will (2001).
346:in Minneapolis, the
336:Museum of Modern Art
332:Montclair Art Museum
652:American Art Review
532:Alias S.S. Van Dine
445:Alias S.S. Van Dine
256:Patrick Henry Bruce
217:Post-Impressionists
175:Art Students League
662:on October 5, 2007
615:(March 22, 1998).
248:Thomas Hart Benton
179:James Earle Fraser
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344:Walker Art Center
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264:Robert Delaunay
157:, oil on canvas
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613:Kramer, Hilton
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575:External links
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507:Morgan Russell
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488:Hughes, Robert
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252:Andrew Dasburg
229:Bernheim-Jeune
187:Ashcan painter
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113:Morgan Russell
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91:Known for
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76:(aged 67)
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680:. Retrieved
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312:H.L. Mencken
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190:Robert Henri
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74:(1953-05-29)
72:May 29, 1953
706:1953 deaths
701:1886 births
515:Levin, Gail
447:(New York:
279:Armory Show
244:abstraction
240:Synchromism
121:Synchromism
105:Synchromism
81:Nationality
695:Categories
536:Henry Holt
366:References
350:, and the
219:, and the
171:Arthur Lee
54:1886-01-25
482:: DaCapo.
449:Scribners
307:Kandinsky
236:in 1913.
213:Delacroix
131:Biography
125:Modernism
682:July 24,
666:July 24,
633:July 24,
603:July 24,
517:(1978).
490:(1994).
480:New York
101:Movement
95:Painting
85:American
569:. 1999.
468:Sources
393:24 July
303:CĂ©zanne
268:Orphism
198:Picasso
194:Matisse
342:, the
338:, the
254:, and
225:Munich
221:Fauves
215:, the
660:(PDF)
647:(PDF)
498:Knopf
260:Sonia
202:Rodin
684:2022
668:2022
635:2022
605:2022
580:The
395:2022
262:and
200:and
69:Died
48:Born
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