Over the Rainbow

RIGHT BEFORE World War I, two young American artists in Paris, Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald-Wright, developed a new kind of painting known as Synchromism. Largely but not exclusively abstract, it made color its central organizing principle. Russell and Macdonald-Wright called their paintings Synchromies; the name, chosen by analogy with “symphony,” conveyed their belief that color was equivalent to sound and that hues could be handled as notes are by a composer.

With their Russell and Macdonald-Wright achieved two firsts: Not only did they create the first abstract movement in American art, but they were the first artists of any nationality to exhibit abstract art in Paris. But for various reasons, both professional and personal, the