During his childhood in the Greenwich Village area of New York City, Morgan Russell planned to follow in his father's footsteps by becoming an architect. He began study at the Art Student's League in 1904. After his first trip to Italy and Paris in 1906, Russell decided to abandon architecture in order to study painting and sculpture full-time.
In autumn of 1907, Russell began studying with Robert Henri at the New York School of Art. During this time, Russell also developed a friendship with Andrew Dasburg who was then living in Woodstock, New York.
Russell moved to Paris in 1908 where he met several artists including Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, and Henri Matisse. The following year, Russell began studies with Matisse.
While attending Ernest Percyval Tudor-Hart's classes on color theory, Russell met fellow American Stanton Macdonald-Wright. They formed a close friendship and discussed color theory and other aesthetic issues at length. Together, the pair developed a style (likely related to Orphism) that was meant to use color to define form and meaning. Russell and Macdonald-Wright each began painting color abstractions they named Synchromies in 1912. They exhibited them first in Paris and then at the Armory Show held in New York City in 1913. Synchromism developed into a movement that survived until 1918.
After the decline of Synchromism, Russell returned to representational painting, exhibiting approximately thirty portraits, nudes, and landscapes in 1919. Although he spent much of his career in France, Russell's presence was felt in the United States; first with the spread of Synchromism, and later through the paintings sold for him in California by Stanton Macdonald-Wright.
In 1946, Russell married Suzanne Binon. The couple returned to the United States later that year settling in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Russell experienced a paralyzing stroke just two years later. By 1950 he had not regained use of his right hand and had learned to paint and write using his left. During the next few years, Russell's work was exhibited in New York at the Rose Fried Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art. Morgan Russell died in a nursing home in Broomall, Pennsylvania, in 1953.
Exhibited: Salon d'Atomne, Paris, 1910; Salon des Indépendants, Paris, 1912-1914, 1920-1925; Der Nue Kunstsalon, Munich, 1913; Bernheim-Jeune Gallery, Paris, 1913; Armory Show, 1913;
Carrol Galleries, New York City, 1914 (Exhibition of Synchromist Paintings by Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald-Wright); Anderson Galleries (Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters), New York City, 1916; Galerie Berthe Weill, Paris, 1919; Galerie d'art des editions, 1919; San Francisco, 1920 (Modern American Painters); Galerie Cheron, Paris, 1920; Galerie Lucien Vogel, Paris, 1921; Galerie La Licorne, Paris, 1923; Galerie Marguerite Henri, Paris, 1925; Oakland Art Gallery, 1927; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1927 (Synchromism), 1932; Galerie G. & L., Bollag, Zurich, 1931; San Francisco, 1931; New Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles 1932, 1942 (with Stanton Macdonald-Wright); Rose Fried Gallery, New York, 1950, 1953 (memorial); Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 1951; Museum of Modern Art, 1951; 1967.
Works Held: Cornell University; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute; Museum of Modern Art; National Museum of American Art; New York University; San Diego Museum; Whitney Museum of American Art.
Further Reading: History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography, Fourth Edition, H.H. Arnason revised by Marla F. Prather, Prentice Hall Inc. and Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998.; Morgan Russell, Marilyn S. Kushner with an introduction by William C. Agee, Hudson Hills Press for the Montclair Art Museum, New York, 1990.; Synchromism and Related Color Principles in American Painting 1910-1930, Exhibition Catalogue, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1967.; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. 3. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds., Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.
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