Study in Transparency
Morgan Russell
American, 1886–1953
c. 1922
An oil on transparentized paper study in which Morgan Russell experiments with layered, translucent color and luminous, branching lines so that color itself becomes the painting’s structure.
You first notice three dark-framed windows filled with brooding teal and rust-red planes, linked by a jagged, pale-gold vein that seems to float across the panels, giving a stained-glass, musical rhythm to the image.
Related to Russell’s Synchromist ideas, this small study pushes American abstraction by treating color and transparency as the primary means of form and spatial organization.
Medium
Oil on transparentized paper
Dimensions
4 3/4 × 13 1/2" (12.1 × 34.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Miss Rose Fried
Accession
31.1955
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
