"What is your religion?" I asked him. "I think it is California," he replied (from an interview with Gottardo Piazzoni, conducted by Max Stern)
The American Southwest, specifically the states of New Mexico and California, have long been pilgrimaged by a vast expanse of artists. This trend sparked in the 1920s, when an influx of misplaced Europeans migrated to New York City. Somehow the vagabond artists found themselves headed to the American Southwest.
A longtime favorite painter of mine, Agnes Lawrence Pelton, was born in Germany and studied art in New York City. She eventually found herself swept in the group of artists running toward desert light.
Arriving in Albuquerque, the painters formed the Transcendentalist Painting Group (TBG), dedicated to creating beyond the material realm and capturing concepts of space, light, and color. Agnes wrote, "The vibration of this light, the spaciousness of these skies enthralled me. I knew there was a spirit in nature as in everything else, but here in the desert it was an especially bright spirit." Sand Storm, is a clear interpretation of the spirit. Another New York scholar who fell in love with the desert was none other than modernist painter Georgia O'Keefe.
On her first solo tour, Georgia's train took an accidental detour through Santa Fe. She was mesmerized. "It's not like anything I ever saw before," She wrote, "There is so much more space between the ground and sky out here... it is tremendous. I want to stay."
I have found that majority of my favorite "light" artists reside or are from either California or New Mexico. I recently attended a James Turrell exhibition, and discovered he is from Pasadena. His cocoons of light are stunning. It's as if he sucked a California sunset into a room.
CalTech professor Richard C. Flagan sums the enigmatic atmosphere as "the result of scattered sunlight, sunlight scattered by molecules," which can manipulate air, light reflections, and our retina's perception on the dynamic spectrum of violet, blues, and reds.
It is lovely to see how a variety of artists, unknown to one another and spanning across decades, interpret the desert's environment and sum energy.
I truly can't get enough of it. Another favorite artist of mine, Judy Chicago, moved to NM from Chicago. She recently partnered with Lady Dior to create a series of light bags. They must be mentioned. The New Mexico inspiration was clear as day, with a sun-ray motif embedded, metallic, into the bags.
It is just fantastic...
Love how the article starts with what what is your religion…California! I can totally relate after being in MN.
This is awesome! ❤Kitty