My lecture “Transcendental LA: Agnes Pelton, Dane Rudhyar, and the New Age in Los Angeles” is now available to watch online.

“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?”