Agnes Pelton
Ascent (aka Liberation), 1946
Oil on canvas
32 x 21 inches
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York Ballroom Marfa Presents
“Agnes Pelton and the American Transcendental”: A lecture by artist Mary Weatherford
May 21, 2016 at The Crowley Theater in Marfa, TX
Doors at 6pm, lecture at 6:30pm
Free Ballroom Marfa presents a lecture by artist Mary Weatherford, “Agnes Pelton and the American Transcendental”, to complement After Effect, the current exhibition on view in Ballroom’s galleries. As a painter herself, Weatherford is particularly interested in the work of Agnes Pelton, a member of the historical Transcendental Painting Group active in New Mexico in the 1930s and ’40s, and will lecture on Pelton’s work, milieu and historical context. The Transcendental Painting group’s manifesto identifies their aim as carrying “painting beyond the appearance of the physical world, through new concepts of space, color, light and design, to imaginative realms that are idealistic and spiritual” in an effort to “widen the horizon of art.” The resulting works were created using methods simultaneously scientific and metaphysical. A classically trained painter, Pelton was co-founder, first president, and the eldest and most experienced member of the group. Born in Ojai, California, Mary Weatherford lives and works in Los Angeles. Weatherford earned her B.A. at Princeton University in 1984 and was a Helena Rubinstein Fellow in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in 1985. She earned her M.F.A.