Agnes Pelton

The spiritually inspired paintings of Agnes Pelton (1881–1961) are rooted in the California desert, a place where the artist settled in 1932 and lived until her death. Her paintings are “like little windows” that open up a view into the inner self, wrote the painter about her highly symbolic paintings, her “message of light to the world.”

In the 1920s, Agnes Pelton discovered abstract painting, which offered her the opportunity to translate esoteric themes into images. Like her fellow artist Georgia O'Keeffe, Pelton deliberately turned her back on the art world on the East Coast. She was celebrated for her abstract compositions: “... for the eye alone, it is an oasis of beauty,” American Art News praised her work. After her death, Pelton's work fell out of the public eye for a long time, but today her important artistic contribution to American modernism is finally being recognized again.