Published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name organized by and held at Phoenix Art Museum, March 9-September 8, 2019; New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, October 3, 2019-January 5, 2020; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 13-June 28, 2020; and Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, August 1-November 29, 2020. Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-215). "Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist" : March 9-September 8, 2019, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, United States. "Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist" : October 3, 2019-January 5, 2020, New Mexico Museum of Art, Sante Fe, New Mexico, United States. "Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist" : March 13-June 28, 2020, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, United States. "Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist" : August 1-November 29, 2020, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California, United States.
Contents:
Appendix. Rachel Sadvary Zebro -- Acknowledgements / Gilbert Vicario -- Introduction / Gilbert Vicario -- Agnes Pelton's Spiritual Modernism / Erika Doss -- Agnes Pelton: Transcendental Symbolist / Michael Zakian -- Agnes in the Desert / Elizabeth Armstrong -- Plates -- Women, Modern Art and the Esoteric: Agnes Pelton in Context / Susan L. Aberth -- Agnes Pelton: A Painting Chronology / Rachel Sadvary Zebro -- Appendix.
Summary:
Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist' will be the first survey of this under recognized American painter in over 22 years. Her distinctive paintings could be described as metaphysical landscapes rooted in the California desert near Cathedral City. Pelton chiefly drew on her own inspirations, superstitions, and beliefs to exemplify emotional states. The publication seeks to clarify the artists significance and role within the cannon of American Modernism but also against the legacy of European abstraction. It contextualizes her work against her contemporaries, Marsden Hartley and Georgia O'Keeffe, and their distinct versions of American spiritual modernism. Pelton?s highly symbolic paintings were inspired by religious sources ranging from Theosophy and Agni Yoga to the spiritual teachings of Dane Rudhyar and Will Levington Comfort. Over three decades she devoted herself to painting spiritual abstractions, which conveyed her light message to the world "'Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist' sheds light on the artistic contributions to American modernism made by Agnes Pelton (1881-1961), while placing her within an international framework of artists who have worked with spiritiual and esoteric abstraction. Pelton spent almost forty years producing abstract compositions that reflect her interest in esoteric subjects, including Agni Yoga, with its principal focus on fire as a guiding force, and numerology." --publisher's description, lower cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.