The Colorist
Archive

A living archive of how artists work with color across time. Each artist profile scans publicly available works to trace dominant colors, a chromatic fingerprint, and the arc of a palette across a lifetime.A living archive of how artists work with color across time, tracing palettes, fingerprints, and lifetime arcs from public works.

Begin with an artist, carry a palette into the drawing system, or read the wider project.Begin with an artist, carry a palette into the drawing system, or read the wider project.

Scanning works…

Stanton Macdonald-Wright

Macdonald-Wright made color the engine of modern form. His Synchromist compositions use nested curves and saturated contrasts to turn abstraction into something almost musical.

Palette: #B0875B #1B4975 #8E4032 #AB4F2F #8A271C #C27D12 #DFB964 #A35B17

  • Conception." Synchromy, By (1915): #784626 #775974 #232320 #B4781E #7E2126 #953A26
  • American Synchromy, By (1921): #E5C58B #297A8C #42AB8B #8D8C81 #71AEA6 #CC996D
  • Bob's Party, Number 1, by Wood Gaylor (1918): #593329 #51717A #211F1E #857E74 #C28765 #B4AB97
  • Synchromy No. 3: #98331C #AC5536 #6B2C1F #BE780C #94724B #BA904E
  • Synchromy in Blue-Green, By (1918): #BF9073 #D4BB9B #3B8081 #8499A4 #06595E #AC3E28
  • Synchromy in Purple Minor--1910--Blanton (1910): #989C9F #D3D1C1 #21468C #4E566C #355FA0 #D1C58D
  • Synchromy No. 3 (1917): #292823 #A2482D #A67E48 #7C502B #7B1E17 #D6B66C
  • Sunrise Synchromy in Violet-1918 (1918): #B9B8B1 #6B746A #744129 #40271D #20597B #444E4A
  • Synchromy, Blue-Green (1916): #2D518C #111015 #CF4111 #AC5419 #762E1B #834919
  • Synchromy in Blue, By (1916): #CAC5AF #586B73 #6D9EAE #252322 #5A2C25 #887B57

The Palette

The Works

How the palette changed

Chromatic Comparison

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