Agnes Lawrence Pelton (1881–1961) was a
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
painter who was born in Germany and moved to the United States as a child. She studied art in the United States and Europe. She made portraits of
Pueblo Native Americans, desert landscapes and still lifes. Pelton's work evolved through at least three distinct themes: her early "Imaginative Paintings," art of the American Southwest people and landscape, and abstract art that reflected her spiritual beliefs.
Early life
Agnes Lawrence Pelton was born in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, Germany to American parents, William and Florence Pelton.
She lived in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
, the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
from 1882 to 1884 and in
Basel, Switzerland
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...
from 1884 to 1888.
In 1888, when the Agnes was about 7 years old, she and her mother moved to
Elizabeth Tilton
Elizabeth Monroe Richards Tilton (May 28, 1834 – April 13, 1897) was an American suffragist, a founder of the Brooklyn Woman's Club, and a poetry editor of '' The Revolution'', the newspaper of the National Woman Suffrage Association, founded ...
's home in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York, located at 1403 Pacific Street. Agnes' father tragically died of a morphine overdose May 23, 1891, at his brother's home in Louisiana.
Florence Pelton studied music at the
Stuttgart Conservatory of Music and operated the Pelton School of Music, from the family home, in Brooklyn for 30 years.
She also gave lessons in French and German.
[Blankenship, ''Women Artists of the American West''.] Due to her poor health, Agnes was educated at home and her mother and
Arthur Whiting taught her piano.
Education
Pelton studied at the
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...
from 1895 to 1900,
graduating with fellow Modernist artist
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
.
She continued her studies with one of her instructors,
Arthur Wesley Dow
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857 – December 13, 1922) was an American painter, printmaker, photographer and an arts educator.
Early life
Arthur Wesley Dow was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1857. Dow received his first art training in 1880 from An ...
, in
Ipswich, Massachusetts
Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A reside ...
. She studied landscape and was Dow's assistant at his summer school, where he taught Modernism, inspired by Chinese and Japanese art. Biographer Tiska Blankenship said that "Dow emphasized structure, spirit, imagination, creation, and the nonnaturalistic use of color, a technique he taught using Japanese prints to demonstrate space relations and the appropriate use of light and dark masses... Dow's influence was critical to Pelton's development of abstractions based on interior, spiritual values."
Dow also taught
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...
.
Pelton took summer classes from
William Langson Lathrop
William Langson Lathrop (pronounced "LAY-throp") (March 29, 1859 – September 21, 1938) was an American Impressionist landscape painter and founder of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is sometimes referred to as a "Pennsylvania I ...
in 1907. Pelton studied in Italy in 1910 and 1911, taking
life drawing
A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representation may range from highly detailed, ...
lessons and studying Italian painters at the
British Academy in Rome, and also studied with
Hamilton Easter Field
Hamilton Easter Field (1873–1922) was an American artist, art patron, connoisseur, and teacher, as well as critic, publisher, and dealer. Highly regarded for his knowledge of Japanese prints and his passion for American folk art and crafts, ...
,
[Severson, 2002.] who was another of her Pratt instructors.
Career
Her work was exhibited in Ogunquit, Maine at Field's studio in 1912. Based upon her work at that show,
Walt Kuhn
Walter Francis Kuhn (October 27, 1877 – July 13, 1949) was an American painter and an organizer of the famous Armory Show of 1913, which was America's first large-scale introduction to European Modernism.
Biography
Kuhn was born in New York ...
invited her to participate in the
1913 Armory Show, where two of her paintings, ''Stone Age'' and ''Vine Wood'' were exhibited.
What Pelton called "Imaginative Paintings" were influenced by the work of
Arthur B. Davies
Arthur Bowen Davies (September 26, 1862 – October 24, 1928) was an avant-garde American artist and influential advocate of modern art in the United States c. 1910–1928.
Biography
Davies was born in Utica, New York, the son of David and Phoeb ...
and depicted the effect of natural light. She made these paintings from 1911 to 1917.
Pelton's work changed significantly following a visit to
Mabel Dodge Luhan
Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan (pronounced ''LOO-hahn''; née Ganson; February 26, 1879 – August 13, 1962) was a wealthy American patron of the arts, who was particularly associated with the Taos art colony.
Early life
Mabel Ganson was the heir ...
in
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...
in 1919. She painted in oil and used pastels to create realistic portraits and desert landscapes and her works were exhibited in Santa Fe at the
School of American Research
The School for Advanced Research (SAR), until 2007 known as the School of American Research and founded in 1907 as the School for American Archaeology (SAA), is an advanced research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Since 1967, the s ...
.
Pelton visited
Pueblo Native Americans in the American southwest.
Pelton had her studios in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
in New York City until 1921 when her mother died. She moved to Long Island and lived in a Hayground windmill that had been converted to a house. She also traveled to Hawaii, Beirut, Syria, Georgia and California.
She painted portraits and
still lifes
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...
in Hawaii in 1923 and 1924. She created abstract works of art beginning 1926, which were exhibited in New York at the Argent Galleries and the Museum of New Mexico. By 1926, she had exhibited in 20 group exhibitions and 14 solo exhibitions.
She settled in
Cathedral City, California
Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second larg ...
in 1932.
Pelton originally intended to just visit the area, but lived there for nearly 30 years. She wrote:
Pelton recorded her spiritual and philosophical thoughts, had an "intense interest" in
Agni Yoga
Agni Yoga (russian: А́гни Йо́га) or the Living Ethics (russian: links=no, Жива́я Э́тика), or the Teaching of Life (russian: links=no, Уче́ние Жи́зни), is a Neo-Theosophical religious doctrine transmitted by ...
, which influenced her work. Seven of her paintings, like ''Fires of Spring'' and ''White Fire'', represented the fire symbol of Agni Yoga. She had a close friendship with modern transpersonal astrology pioneer
Dane Rudhyar
Dane Rudhyar (March 23, 1895 – September 13, 1985), born Daniel Chennevière, was a American author, modernist composer and humanistic astrologer. He was a pioneer of modern transpersonal astrology.
Biography
Dane Rudhyar was born in Paris on ...
and Modernist Southwest painter
Raymond Jonson
Raymond Jonson (July 18, 1891 – May 10, 1982), was an American-born Modernist painter known for his paintings of the American Southwest. Born Carl Raymond Johnson, he originally signed his paintings C. Raymond Johnson, but later used Ray ...
.
In 1938, she was a co-founder, first president, and the oldest member of the Transcendental Painting Group.
Pelton died in Cathedral City in 1961 and was cremated.
Her ashes were buried in the
San Jacinto Mountains
The San Jacinto Mountains (''Avii Hanupach''Munro, P., et al. ''A Mojave Dictionary''. Los Angeles: UCLA. 1992. in Mojave) are a mountain range in Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mou ...
.
Posthumous exhibitions and legacy
"Agnes Pelton, Poet of Nature", a 1995-1996 retrospective exhibition of her work, brought national attention to her work.
Curator
Michael Zakian
Michael Zakian (April 7, 1957-January 14, 2020) was an American art historian and museum curator. He was the director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum in Malibu, California for 25 years until his death in 2020. His academic research focused on ...
wrote:
In 2009, her work was exhibited with three other Modernist artists:
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...
,
Florence Miller Pierce
Florence Melva Pierce (July 27, 1918 – October 25, 2007) was an American artist best known for her innovative resin relief paintings. Her work has often been linked with monochrome painting and minimalism.
Early life and education
Florence M ...
, and
Agnes Martin
Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004), was an American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence". Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, Mart ...
. A 192-page catalog accompanied the exhibition. From March to September 2019, the
Phoenix Art Museum
The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of ...
held an exhibition featuring over 40 of Pelton's works. From March 13 to June 28, 2020,
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
held an exhibit organized by the
Phoenix Art Museum
The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of ...
, "Agnes Pelton: The Desert Transcendentalist".
The Agnes Pelton Society was founded in 2013 to promote Pelton's life and legacy.
Collections
*
Honolulu Museum of Art
The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...
, Hawaii
* The Raymond Jonson Collection,
University of New Mexico Art Museum
The University of New Mexico Art Museum (sometimes referred to as the University Art Museum or UNM Art Museum) is an art museum at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The museum's permanent collection includes nearly 30,000 objects, making ...
, Albuquerque
*
New Mexico Museum of Art
The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located at 107 West Palace Avenue, one block off the ...
*
Oakland Museum of California
The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cali ...
*
Palm Springs Art Museum
The Palm Springs Art Museum (formerly the Palm Springs Desert Museum) was founded in 1938, and is a regional art, natural science and performing arts institution for Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, California, United St ...
, California
* Palladino/Den Historic Home of Agnes Pelton, Cathedral City Cove, California
*
Parrish Art Museum
The Parrish Art Museum is an art museum designed by Herzog & de Meuron Architects and located in Water Mill, New York, whereto it moved in 2012 from Southampton Village. The museum focuses extensively on work by artists from the artist colony of t ...
,
Southampton, New York
Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stret ...
*
Phoenix Art Museum
The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of ...
, Arizona: ''Messengers'', 1932; Day, 1935
*
San Diego Museum of Art
The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located at 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Galler ...
, California: ''The Primal Wing'', 1933
*
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
* Sussman Staying Visible Collection, Foothill DeAnza Community College District, Cupertino, California.
*
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
, New York: Untitled abstract, 1931
*
Crystal Bridges Museum
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum, founded by Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, officially opened on 11 November 2011. It offers free public admission.
Overview ...
, Arkansas: Divinity Lotus, 1929
References
Sources
*
* Severson, Don R. ''Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections'', University of Hawaii Press, 2002, p. 120.
Further reading
* Stainer, Margaret, Betty Estersohn,
Jan Rindfleisch
Jan Rindfleisch is an American artist, educator, author, curator, and community builder. Rindfleisch is known for the programming she initiated and oversaw at the Euphrat Museum of Art; for her book on the history of art communities in the South Ba ...
and Deanna Bartels. "Agnes Pelton” in ''Staying Visible: The Importance of Archives'', 1981.
* Gale, Zona, ''When I was a Little Girl'', with illustrations by Agnes Pelton, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1913.
* Moss, Karen, ''Illumination, the Paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin and Florence Miller Pierce'', Newport Beach, Calif., Orange County Museum of Art, 2009.
* Papanikolas, Theresa and DeSoto Brown, ''Art Deco Hawai'i'', Honolulu, Honolulu Museum of Art, 2014, , p. 97
*''Agnes Pelton : Desert Transcendentalist''. Gilbert Vicario,
Erika Doss
Erika Lee Doss is an American educator and author, having served as a professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Doss received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1983, and "has held fellowships at t ...
, Michael Zakian, Elizabeth Armstrong, Susan L. Aberth, Rachel Sadvary Zebro. Hirmer Verlag: Munich: Phoenix Art Museum. 2019.
ISBN
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.
An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition and ...
3-7774-3192-3
* Rindfleisch, Jan, ''Making the Desert Flower: An Alternative Look at Rarely Seen Agnes Pelton Paintings'', California Desert Art: Art, History and Landscape of the California Desert, 2019.
* Vicario, Gilbert, editor. Authors: Susan L. Aberth, Elizabeth Armstrong,
Erika Doss
Erika Lee Doss is an American educator and author, having served as a professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Doss received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1983, and "has held fellowships at t ...
, Gilbert Vicario, Michael Zakian, Rachel Sadvara Zebro. ''Agnes Pelton: Desert Transendentalist'', Hirmer Verlag GmbH, Munich. 2019.
* Zakian, Michael, ''Agnes Pelton, Poet of Nature'', (Palm Springs, Calif., Palm Springs Desert Museum). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. 1995. .
External links
California Desert Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelton, Agnes Lawrence
20th-century American painters
Abstract painters
American landscape painters
American women painters
Painters from California
People from Cathedral City, California
1961 deaths
1881 births
German emigrants to the United States
Pratt Institute alumni
20th-century American women artists
American abstract artists