Rediscovered: female American modernist

Abstract art that reflects the artist’s spiritual beliefs

Pelton's works are poetic celebrations of nature that explores the vital forces animating the physical world

40,00 £ [UK]

Agnes Pelton

Desert Transcendentalist

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.

description

The publication seeks to clarify the artist’s 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.”

press commentaries

The book is a welcome, deferential consideration of Pelton’s work. At last, artists like her, who come from outside the mainstream traditions of 20th century art, are getting the art history they deserve.

MutualArt

Details

Ed. Gilbert Vicario

In stock

Essays by Gilbert Vicario, S. Aberth, E. Armstrong, E. Doss, M. Zakian, R. Sadvary Zebro

220 pages, 132 colour illustrations
25 x 29 cm, hardcover

ISBN: 978-3-7774-3974-7

Events

Phoenix | Phoenix Art Museum

Santa Fe | New Mexico Museum of Art

New York City | Whitney Museum of American Art

Palm Desert | Palm Springs Art Museum