The spiritually inspired pictures of Agnes Pelton (1881-1961) have their roots in the desert of California, a place where the artist settled in 1932 and where she lived until her death. She wrote of her highly symbolic paintings that her pictures were like little windows , which opened up a view into the interior, her message of light to the world .

In the 1920s Agnes Pelton started to explore abstract painting, because this offered her the possibility of translating esoteric topics into pictures as well as interpreting earth and light in a spiritual way. Like her fellow-artist Georgia O'Keeffe, Pelton deliberately turned her back on the art scene of the East Coast. She was celebrated for her abstract compositions: … it is simply an oasis of beauty for the eye , was how American Art News eulogised her work. After her death Pelton’s work disappeared from the public focus for a long time; today her important artistic contribution to American modernism is acknowledged once more.