Agnes Pelton

Description

The spiritually inspired pictures of Agnes Pelton (1881-1961) have their roots in the desert of California, a place where the artist settled in 1932 and where she lived until her death. She wrote of her highly symbolic paintings that her pictures were "like little windows", which opened up a view into the interior, her "message of light to the world". In the 1920s Agnes Pelton started to explore abstract painting, because this offered her the possibility of translating esoteric topics into pictures as well as interpreting earth and light in a spiritual way. Like her fellow-artist Georgia O'Keeffe, Pelton deliberately turned her back on the art scene of the East Coast. She was celebrated for her abstract compositions: "... it is simply an oasis of beauty for the eye", was how American Art News eulogised her work. After her death Pelton's work disappeared from the public focus for a long time; today her important artistic contribution to American modernism is acknowledged once more.

Gilbert Vicario is the Selig Family Chief Curator at the Phoenix Art Museum. His past books include Ragnar Kjartansson: Scandinavian Pain and Other Myths and Hot Mess Formalism.