Details

Provenance

R.H. Hobgood Mr. and Mrs. M.A. Gribin Ed Goldfield Galleries, Los Angeles, California Private Collection, California (acquired from the above) David David Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 2012

Exhibited

Los Angeles, California, Hollywood Library Art Gallery, Modern Art Workers , October─November 1925 Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles Museum, Exposition Park, Modern Art Workers , March─April 1926, no. 36 Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles Museum; Oakland, California, Oakland Art Gallery, Synchromism , February-June 1927, no. 1 Los Angeles, California, University of California, Los Angeles Art Galleries, Stanton Macdonald-Wright: A Retrospective, 1911-1978 , November-December 1970

Literature

Will South, Color, Myth and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism , Raleigh, North Carolina, 2001, p. 88 Catalogue Note Never a conventionally religious man, Stanton Macdonald-Wright was nonetheless deeply spiritual. About the time he painted his Nature Synchromy , he lectured to his class at the Art Students League of Los Angeles: “Man desires permanency, and the systems of philosophy, religion, ethics, and art are merely attempts at the foundation of indestructible monuments. At bottom, the impulse in all these spiritual expressions is identical” (Lectures to the Los Angeles ASL, Mabel Alvarez Papers, Archives of American Art). Indeed, Macdonald-Wright noted in an autobiographical draft that his Nature Synchromy had taken on the title of The Holy Family , despite the artist’s more universal intentions. Along with a variance in perceptions, Angelenos of the time were being moved by the local advent of modernism, and it was paintings such as Nature Synchromy that were chipping away at the otherwise immutable conservatism of the Southland. An unidentified critic wrote this of Nature Syncrhomy when it was first shown in Los Angeles in 1925: “Stanton Wright’s Nature Synchromy , which may be called the keynote of the exhibition, may not be a picture in the usual and accepted sense—in sober truth, it is not, according to the gospel of the Victorians—but it is a thing of great and haunting beauty, and it is art. This rhythm of lines, this perfect modeling, this masterly distribution of the hues of the spectrum make for beauty—they produce a work of art that needs no defense and no explanation” (News clipping, Archives of American Art, roll LA5, reel 227).

Catalog summary

Stanton Macdonald-Wright Nature Synchromy signed, titled and dated "Nature Synchromy"/Stanton M. Wright/California 1924/yang-yin on the reverse oil on canvas 36 by 26 inches (91.4 by 66 cm) Provenance R.H. Hobgood Mr. and Mrs. M.A. Gribin Ed Goldfield Galleries, Los Angeles, California Private Collection, California (acquired from the above) David David Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 2012 Exhibited Los Angeles, California, Hollywood Library Art Gallery, Modern Art Workers , October─November 1925 Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles Museum, Exposition Park, Modern Art Workers , March─April 1926, no. 36 Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles Museum; Oakland, California, Oakland Art Gallery, Synchromism , February-June 1927, no. 1 Los Angeles, California, University of California, Los Angeles Art Galleries, Stanton Macdonald-Wright: A Retrospective, 1911-1978 , November-December 1970 Literature Will South, Color, Myth and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism , Raleigh, North Carolina, 2001, p. 88 Catalogue Note Never a conventionally religious man, Stanton Macdonald-Wright was nonetheless deeply spiritual. About the time he painted his Nature Synchromy , he lectured to his class at the Art Students League of Los Angeles: “Man desires permanency, and the systems of philosophy, religion, ethics, and art are merely attempts at the foundation of indestructible monuments. At bottom, the impulse in all these spiritual expressions is identical” (Lectures to the Los Angeles ASL, Mabel Alvarez Papers, Archives of American Art). Indeed, Macdonald-Wright noted in an autobiographical draft that his Nature Synchromy had taken on the title of The Holy Family , despite the artist’s more universal intentions. Along with a variance in perceptions, Angelenos of the time were being moved by the local advent of modernism, and it was paintings such as Nature Synchromy that were chipping away at the otherwise immutable conservatism of the Southland. An unidentified critic wrote this of Nature Syncrhomy when it was first shown in Los Angeles in 1925: “Stanton Wright’s Nature Synchromy , which may be called the keynote of the exhibition, may not be a picture in the usual and accepted sense—in sober truth, it is not, according to the gospel of the Victorians—but it is a thing of great and haunting beauty, and it is art. This rhythm of lines, this perfect modeling, this masterly distribution of the hues of the spectrum make for beauty—they produce a work of art that needs no defense and no explanation” (News clipping, Archives of American Art, roll LA5, reel 227).