Edited with text by Michael Duncan. Text by Scott Shields, MaLin Wilson Powell, Catherine Whitney, Ilene Susan Fort, Dane Rudhyar.
Abstract painting meets theosophical spirituality in 1930s New Mexico: the first book on a radical, astonishingly prescient episode in American modernism
Founded in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, in 1938, at a time when social realism reigned in American art, the Transcendental Painting Group (TPG) sought to promote abstract art that pursued enlightenment and spiritual illumination. The nine original members of the Transcendental Painting Group were Emil Bisttram, Robert Gribbroek, Lawren Harris, Raymond Jonson, William Lumpkins, Florence Miller Pierce, Agnes Pelton, Horace Towner Pierce and Stuart Walker. They were later joined by Ed Garman. Despite the quality of their works, these Southwest artists have been neglected in most surveys of American art, their paintings rarely exhibited outside of New Mexico. Faced with the double disadvantage of being an openly spiritual movement from the wrong side of the Mississippi, the TPG has remained a secret mostly known only to cognoscenti.
Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group aims to address this slight, claiming the group’s artists as crucial contributors to an alternative through-line in 20th-century abstraction, one with renewed relevance today. This volume provides a broad perspective on the group’s work, positioning it within the history of modern painting and 20th-century American art. Essays examine the TPG in light of their international artistic peers; their involvement with esoteric thought and Theosophy; the group’s sources in the culture and landscape of the American Southwest; and the experience of its two female members.
mil Bisttram, Creative Forces, 1936. Oil on canvas, 36 x 27”. Private collection, Courtesy Aaron Payne Fine Art, Santa Fe.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
New York Magazine
Max Pearl
Now that nondenominational spirituality is once again in the Zeitgeist, the world may be ready to recognize this distinctly American art movement and the cultural undercurrent it represented.
Artfixdaily
A lavishly illustrated exhibition catalogue... The handsome, colorful volume features stand-alone essays on each member, an illustrated chronology of the group with archival photography and ephemera...positioning Transcendental art as a redemptive 20th century movement.
The Nation
Max Pearl
The Transcendental Painting Group are a welcome reminder that art can be deep without being aloof, removed, or highly theoretical; it can be naive and idealistic, swing big and occasionally miss, predict the future and get it wrong, bite off more than it can chew. It’s proof that art can aspire to greatness without needing to achieve perfection.
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“Blue Forms” (1942) by Florence Miller Pierce is reproduced from Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group, the highly-anticipated new release from DelMonico Books and the Crocker Art Museum, published to accompany the traveling exhibition opening this week in Albuquerque. The first book devoted to this underrecognized group of artists from the Southwest who promoted abstraction in pursuit of enlightenment and spiritual illumination, Another World, collects 175 images by Emil Bisttram, Ed Garman, Robert Gribbroek, Lawren Harris, Raymond Jonson, William Lumpkins, Agnes Pelton, Horace Towner Pierce, Dane Rudhyar and Stuart Walker, in addition to Miller Pierce. “Contemporary abstraction, broadly, now seems to be grasping for styles and concepts that break from the formal restrictions of the past century,” curator and editor Michael Duncan writes. “Aimless doodles, random tracings, scribbles and daubs have proliferated on canvases for several decades now. Given the dire state of the world today, we need something more. The TPG provides a model for how, today, more than eighty years later, nonobjective art might once again regain its mojo, rekindle the spirit and nourish the soul.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.5 x 11.5 in. / 240 pgs / 140 color / 35 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $60.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $84 GBP £53.00 ISBN: 9781942884873 PUBLISHER: DelMonico Books/Crocker Art Museum AVAILABLE: 7/6/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by DelMonico Books/Crocker Art Museum. Edited with text by Michael Duncan. Text by Scott Shields, MaLin Wilson Powell, Catherine Whitney, Ilene Susan Fort, Dane Rudhyar.
Abstract painting meets theosophical spirituality in 1930s New Mexico: the first book on a radical, astonishingly prescient episode in American modernism
Founded in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, in 1938, at a time when social realism reigned in American art, the Transcendental Painting Group (TPG) sought to promote abstract art that pursued enlightenment and spiritual illumination. The nine original members of the Transcendental Painting Group were Emil Bisttram, Robert Gribbroek, Lawren Harris, Raymond Jonson, William Lumpkins, Florence Miller Pierce, Agnes Pelton, Horace Towner Pierce and Stuart Walker. They were later joined by Ed Garman. Despite the quality of their works, these Southwest artists have been neglected in most surveys of American art, their paintings rarely exhibited outside of New Mexico. Faced with the double disadvantage of being an openly spiritual movement from the wrong side of the Mississippi, the TPG has remained a secret mostly known only to cognoscenti.
Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group aims to address this slight, claiming the group’s artists as crucial contributors to an alternative through-line in 20th-century abstraction, one with renewed relevance today. This volume provides a broad perspective on the group’s work, positioning it within the history of modern painting and 20th-century American art. Essays examine the TPG in light of their international artistic peers; their involvement with esoteric thought and Theosophy; the group’s sources in the culture and landscape of the American Southwest; and the experience of its two female members.
