Transcendental Painting Group
In the mid-1930s painters working in New Mexico began discussions that led to the formation of the Transcendental Painting Group (TPG). Following several informal meetings, a group of artists who shared an interest in abstract and non-objective art formally organized the TPG in Taos on June 10, 1938. In terms of experience and years, Agnes Pelton was the eldest artist included in the group, and at nineteen as a student artist, Florence Miller Pierce was the youngest.
To a great extent the TPG members organized to defend and validate abstract and non-objective art which was regarded as suspect by the public and was, therefore, generally rejected from exhibitions. The TPG believed that if the attitudes of the public could be effectively altered, then exhibitions of their work would be accepted. As the discussion of expectations expanded among the membership, the TPG developed a mission with a deeper philosophical intention. Once concepts and titles were agreed upon, a manifesto was published in 1938 to promote TPG ideals and art.
The TPG manifesto stated that their purpose was "to carry 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." The manifesto included the statement that "the work does not concern itself with political, economic, or other social problems." Arranging exhibitions of transcendental work that would "serve to widen the horizon of art" became the focus of the TPG's activity.
One of the most significant accomplishments of the TPG was to bring the term transcendental to prominence within the semantic dialogue. The TPG's application of the term to their art advanced the meaning assumed by the terms abstraction or non-objective. The term transcendental allowed expansion of the ideas already behind each artist's work and established the concept of the sublime, a word that conveyed high spiritual and intellectual worth. Because a transcendental painting represented an ideal condition or one of expanded awareness and acceptance, the TPG believed that it held the potential to serve as a powerful icon for enlightened cultural values.
Difficult and perhaps seemingly obscure terms such as spiritual, transcendental, quality, or ideal were part of the transcendental dialogue. At the time, the group was aware of the difficulty involved in defining these terms and made a genuine effort to explain the TPG's ideals through lectures, newspaper articles, and the group's manifesto. These terms generated confusion, fear, or dismissal. For the TPG, spiritual was meant to convey something other than religious meaning--rather, something that was reached from a process of refining integrity, skill, knowledge, and experience into an artistic statement conveying openness and acceptance--and something that was ultimately inspiring for the human condition. The term transcendental was tied to quality, as was the concept of ideal, because no work lacking in quality could represent an ideal, and therefore could not approach the spiritual.
Agnes Pelton and Florence Miller Pierce:
The Two Women Artists in The Transcendental Painting Group (1938-1945)
by Tiska Blankenship, ©1998
Jonson Gallery Curator, University of New Mexico Art Museums
