Shown is a painting done by Stanton McDonald-Wright in 1918 titled “Au Cafe.” If you take a close look at the color-blocked painting, you will see some figures, wine glasses and perhaps get a feeling of undulating, soft music. Image provided.

By Darla McCammon
and DeeAnna Muraski
Guest Columnists

WARSAW — As we move through art in America from the 1900s through 2000, we next come across an artist who impacted not only American art but also international art.

Stanton McDonald-Wright was born in Virginia in 1890. Unlike Mary Cassatt from last week’s column, McDonald-Wright’s parents supported his artistic talents. The family moved from Virginia to Santa Monica, Calif., where his father ran a successful seaside hotel and dabbled in painting also. McDonald-Wright was encouraged at the young age of 13 to attend the Art Students League in Los Angeles. During this time, he was exposed to the Ashcan School and impressionism, although he never referred to himself as an impressionist.

At the age of 17, he married his lifelong partner, Ida Wyman, whom he had known for only two weeks before marrying her. However, they remained together until his death when he was in his late 80s. Unfortunately, during 1910 when he was only in his 20s, he and his brother developed an addiction to opium. McDonald-Wright was eventually able to overcome the extremely difficult addiction, but his brother succumbed to it and died, leaving a young daughter.

He also studied at Harvard and Yale before leaving for Paris to study. While in Paris, he continued his educational quest at Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Académie Colarossi, Académie de la Grande Chaumière and Sorbonne and absorbed as much artwork at the Louvre as possible.

McDonald-Wright’s greatest contribution to art was his creation of Synchromism. He was a pioneer of painting in the modernist style. Synchromism uses abstract painting and non-objective painting in a musical phase. He created a machine using mirrors and lenses that takes black and white photographs and projects them in color. By using a musical scale, he took 12 colors of the spectrum and assigned them an individual note on the music scale. By painting these colors on the canvas according to the musical scale, it would make the painting harmonize. The addition of painting in two dimensions created movement and flow.

Other significant contributions were in 1920 when McDonald-Wright organized the first modern art exhibit in Los Angeles. The exhibit became an important historical art marker in America. He also had a broad influence as a painter and teacher. He taught for more than 10 years at the University of California Los Angeles in Oriental art, art history and iconography. He had fellowships in Japan and taught at three other universities.

For five months of the year, he and his wife lived in a Zen monastery in Kyoto, Japan. McDonald-Wright’s wife was the only woman the monastery ever allowed. They were gifted the house for the duration of both their lives, a rare and unique honor. He spoke fluent French, Chinese and Japanese up to his dying days, which ended up being in 1973 when he was 83 years old. He was referred to by Time magazine as the “dean of California painters,” but his reach undulated and pulsated like his unique paintings throughout America and internationally.

Darla McCammon is an artist, columnist and author. DeeAnna Muraski is executive director of Operation Read USA Inc.