Transcendental LA: Agnes Pelton, Dane Rudhyar, and the New Age in LA with Michael Carter

Artist Agnes Pelton (1881–1965) and astrologer-musician-artist Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) are names both obscure and famous. Close friends for over thirty years, Pelton has emerged as a leading figure of 20th-century American metaphysical art while Rudhyar—in addition to his substantial musical, artistic, and philosophical efforts—is thought to be the most influential theorist of and most prolific writer on modern astrology. Together with a small band of their creative peers and at sharp odds with the prevailing trends of the era, they would go on to form the core of the Transcendental Painting Group (1938-1941), a distinctly North American attempt to promote abstract art that emphasized spiritual illumination and inspiration. How did they come to be associated with this group? What metaphysical concepts inspired their work? How did their friendship and the unique social world of "new age" Los Angeles chart the direction of their lives?

On the eve of the opening of Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, artist, educator, and theosophical researcher Michael Carter (MFA, Claremont Graduate University) will discuss the uniquely Southern Californian genesis of Pelton and Rudhyar's creative achievements. Carter will reveal the influence of specific theosophical doctrines in Pelton's artwork and Rudhyar's astrology, including a revealing inquiry into the origins of psychological astrology. Along the way, he will illuminate the sites and events of the early 1900's new age scene in LA and its profound influence on their lives. He will conclude by showing the conditions of their legacies today and what has become of the sites associated with Pelton and Rudhyar's time in and near Los Angeles.

Michael Carter received his MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2010. His work is an investigation into metaphysical theories of art and the cultural histories of science, philosophy, and religion in modernity to the contemporary. Carter's artworks have been exhibited extensively locally and abroad, including shows and performances in Los Angeles, Denmark, and Romania. He has studied Theosophy and its wider history for more than a fifteen years. www.michaelcarter.studio

image: Sea Change by Agnes Pelton

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