Macdonald-Wright developed Synchromism, a style with roots in French Cubism and Italian Futurism, which aspired to present industry as a whirling force of color and movement. Here, colored fragments and patterns recall a view of rooftops as if seen from an airplane, while a turning propeller and a detail of the plane’s engine complete this tribute to modern travel.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Aeroplane Synchromy in Yellow-Orange
Artist:Stanton Macdonald-Wright (American, Charlottesville, Virginia 1890–1973 Los Angeles, California)
Date:1920
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:24 1/4 in. × 24 in. (61.6 × 61 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
Object Number:49.70.52
the artist (probably his gift ca. January–ca. July 1920 to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (1920–d. 1946; on extended loan ca. March or May 1944–January 1947 to Philadelphia Museum of Art; his estate, 1946–49; gift to MMA)
Los Angeles. Museum of History, Science, and Art. "Exhibition of Paintings by American Modernists," February 1–29, 1920, no. 65 (as "Aeroplane Synchromy (Yellow-orange)".
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings Showing the Later Tendencies in Art," April 16–May 15, 1921, no. 235.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Pioneers of Modern Art in America," April 9–May 19, 1946, no. 82 (as "Airplane, Yellow and Orange," 1917).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum," June 16–October 29, 1950, unnum. brochure (p. 8; dated 1917).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Galleries," April 9–October 17, 1965, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum's Collections," October 1–December 7, 1969, no catalogue.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Synchronism and American Color Abstraction, 1910–1925," January 24–March 26, 1978, unnumbered cat. (pl. 21).
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Synchronism and American Color Abstraction, 1910–1925," April 20–June 18, 1978, unnumbered cat.
Des Moines Art Center. "Synchronism and American Color Abstraction, 1910–1925," July 6–September 3, 1978, unnumbered cat.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Synchronism and American Color Abstraction, 1910–1925," September 22–November 19, 1978, unnumbered cat.
Syracuse, N. Y. Everson Museum of Art. "Synchronism and American Color Abstraction, 1910–1925," December 15, 1978–January 28, 1979, unnumbered cat.
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. "Synchronism and American Color Abstraction, 1910–1925," February 15–March 24, 1979, unnumbered cat.
Venice. Palazzo Grassi. "Futurismo e Futurismi," May 4–October 12, 1986, unnumbered cat. (p. 365).
Southampton, N. Y. Parrish Art Museum. "Modern Meets the Masses: 1910–1920," February 20–April 10, 1994, unnumbered cat. (pl. 10).
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "To Be Modern: American Encounters with Cézanne and Company," June 15–September 29, 1996 (p. 46).
Raleigh. North Carolina Museum of Art. "Stanton Macdonald–Wright Retrospective," March 4–July 3, 2001, no. 24.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Stanton Macdonald–Wright Retrospective," August 5–October 29, 2001, no. 24.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 110.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Thomas Hart Benton’s 'America Today' Mural Rediscovered," September 30, 2014–April 19, 2015, no catalogue (see MMA Bulletin 72, Winter 2015).
John I. H. Baur. Revolution and Tradition in Modern American Art. Cambridge, Mass., 1951, p. 52, fig. 59.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 72–73, ill.
George Heard Hamilton. "The Alfred Stieglitz Collection." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), p. 384, fig. 13.
Will South. "Stanton Macdonald-Wright (1890–1973): From Synchromism to the Federal Art Projects." PhD diss., City University of New York, 1994, pp. 41, 120–24, 127, fig. 27.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 151–53, 266, no. 110, ill. (color).
Randall R. Griffey and Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser in "Thomas Hart Benton's 'America Today'." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 72 (Winter 2015), p. 8, fig. 5 (color).
Florine Stettheimer (American, Rochester, New York 1871–1944 New York, New York)
1942
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