1886 -1953 · New York, Paris and synchromism

Chromatic rhythms, rotating volumes and musical analogies made Morgan Russell an American pioneer of abstraction before World War I.

Morgan Russell was born in New York in 1886 and died in Broomall, Pennsylvania, in 1953. After initial artistic training in the United States, notably with Robert Henri, he moved to Paris in 1909. The study of sculpture, by Michelangelo and color theory led him to look for a painting that no longer depended on the subject represented. With Stanton Macdonald-Wright, around 1912 he founded synchromism. The term literally means "with color" and also evokes the symphony: the two artists wanted to compose with tones as the musician composes with sounds. The Whitney Museum recalls that their colored divisions function as musical measures and introduce the idea of time into painting. Russell's synchromies organize red, blue, green, yellow and purple around rotating axes; color simultaneously constructs volume, depth and movement. Cosmic Synchromy extends this principle to an image where shapes seem to gravitate and unfold in a space without horizon. His Self-Portrait reveals the other side of his career: even when he returns to the figure, he maintains a solid construction, attentive to masses and chromatic relationships. Even when he returns to the figure, he maintains a solid construction, attentive to masses and chromatic relationships. Installed for a long time in France, Russell continued the study of the body, sculpture and ancient masters without abandoning the founding idea according to which color has its own own architecture. The "Morgan Russell" selection notably compares Morgan Russell's Self-Portrait and Cosmic Synchromy. His reading favors light.

Morgan Russell composes color as duration: each tone responds to the previous one, pushes the next one and draws the eye into an almost musical movement.