![Orbs of primary colors radiate out from the center of the drawing.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/1022581-crop.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
![A German poster promoting the artists' exhibition with a wave of striped color panels centered among the text.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1018933-1-scaled.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
![A French poster promoting the artists' exhibition with a formation of colors in the center.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1018928-1-scaled.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
They held their first exhibitions in Munich and Paris in 1913. The hand-painted exhibition posters—which were affixed to walls and kiosks in those cities—were soon removed as souvenirs by passersby, and only three survive: the two in the Vilcek Foundation Collection on view here, and a third poster in the collection of the Montclair Art Museum.
![Round yellow and orange fruits on a background of blues and reds painted with thick brushstrokes.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/VF2016.02.01-scaled.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
The soft, sketchiness of Synchromist Still Life, c. 1910, illuminates the early formulation of these ideas about color as the basis of form and content—the spheres of color just barely coalescing into the suggestion of fruits against a background of waves of color.
![An arc of three striped planes of color centered inside a pencil-sketched border.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1018935-1-scaled.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
![Painting of an array of vibrant colors moving in a downward curve as if being directed by arrows.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1018937-1-scaled.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
Two smaller works on paper by Russell—Study for Synchromy in Blue-Violet, 1912/13, and A Synchromy, 1913/14—illustrate the evolution of his style as well as his sources; Michelangelo’s Dying Slave, 1513–16, in the Louvre Museum, inspired the S-curve visible in both works.
![Geometric shapes of purple, pink, red, yellow, and blue with visible brushstrokes fill the canvas.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1105584-scaled.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
The lines sharpen, accentuated by thick black L-brackets in A Synchromy, 1913/14, crystallizing into distinct planes of color in Synchromy, c. 1913–14.
![Orbs of primary colors radiate out from the center of the drawing.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1022581-scaled.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
A rare work on paper by Macdonald-Wright, the orbs of color in Conception Life-Cycle Series No. II: Tinted Sketch for Synchromy in Blue-Violet, seem to radiate from the center of the composition. The gradated sections of color closely related to the posters and Russell’s paintings.
The hand-painted frame is original and the golden polka dots appear to float off the work. Macdonald-Wright signed the composition with his mother’s maiden name, Van Vranken.
![Painting of abstract geometric divisions of bright pastel colors inlayed with three spirals.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1019038-1-scaled.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
The orbs of Conception appear reimagined almost fifty years later in Gestation #3—a testament to the longevity of the principles of Synchromism. Macdonald-Wright has clarified the planes of color; washes defined earlier by ink give way to a sharp, powerful composition.
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The Synchromists and Oscar Bluemner: The Sonnet Series
![Painting of abstract geometric divisions of bright pastel colors inlayed with three spirals.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1019038-1-413x492.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
Synchromist Still Life
![Round yellow and orange fruits on a background of blues and reds painted with thick brushstrokes.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/VF2016.02.01-392x492.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
Gestation #3
![Painting of abstract geometric divisions of bright pastel colors inlayed with three spirals.](https://eteme5j4z9y.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1019038-1-413x492.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)