Provenance:

Salander-O'Reilly Galleries Inc., New York, New York.

Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, New York.

Private Collection.

Lot Note:

Along with Stanton McDonald-Wright, Morgan Russell founded Synchromism around 1913, an aesthetic breakthrough that effectively launched abstraction as the purview of American Art. Though short-lived, it is a conceptual and formalist precursor to the Abstract Expressionist and Color Field movements of the mid-century. Giving preeminence to color and form as independent subjects, as opposed to mere conduits for expression, Synchromism establishes a literal approach to painting, one that makes the process an integral part of the visual output.

In Synchronized Abstraction (1913), Russell demonstrates the primary tenet of Synchromism, which is to employ color to create space, not simply to fill it. In a manner reminiscent of a musical score, color, far from mere enhancement, endows the painting with rhythm and works as the guiding factor behind the composition. The palette presents neatly scaled hues that interact harmoniously, an organic and dynamic orchestration evincing a vivid emotional response from the viewer.