Abstraction

Morgan Russell temporarily abandoned his color abstractions—which he called Synchromies—to paint representational subjects with greater market appeal. In 1922, however, he returned to the Synchromistic aesthetic, which he found emotionally and creatively invigorating. Abstraction bears a strong formal relation to a series of paintings he called Eidos, a term taken from the Greek word meaning "form." The illusion of spinning motion relates to Russell's plan to accompany his paintings with a kinetic light machine that would suggest the afterimage of fireworks. The signature along the horizontal is not in Russell's hand, and it is generally agreed that the painting should be oriented vertically.