Transcendental Painting Group (TPG)

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The Transcendental Painting Group (TPG) was a spiritualist abstract art movement founded in New Mexico in 1938. The group consisted of artists who wanted to infuse spiritual qualities in abstraction with concepts from Theosophy, Agni Yoga, and Zen Buddhism.

Mission

The purpose of the TPG, as set forth in a manifesto, 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."

Members

Raymond Jonson (1891-1982) Co-founder of the TPG. Modernist painter and educator at the University of New Mexico.

Emil Bisttram (1895-1976) Co-founder of the TPG. Hungarian born influential painter who founded the Taos School of Art.

Lawren Harris (1885-1970) Well known Canadian painter who joined the TPG in 1938 while living in New Mexico. He was forced to return to Canada in 1940 when wartime regulations prevented him from transferring Canadian currency out of the country.

Agnes Pelton (1881-1961) - Oldest member of the group who was voted in as a member in absentia because she was living in Cathedral City, CA at the time.

Florence Miller-Pierce (1918-2007)- Student of Emil Bisttram. She was the youngest member of the TPG and exposed to Theosophy through acquaintances. She married fellow artist Horace-Towner Pierce.

Horace Towner-Pierce (1916-1958) - Student of Emil Bisttram. Used Dynamic Symmetry for a series of drawings dedicated to non-objective painting. He was interested in animating his work with music from Dane Rudhyar, believing film was the future.

Robert Gribboek (1906-1971) - Student of Emil Bisttram. After spending a few years in New Mexico, he moved to California to work as an artist for Warner Brothers.

William Lumpkins (1909-2000) - Treasurer of TPG and the only member native to New Mexico. Beginning in the 1930s, he painted visionary works of abstract expressionism.

Stuart Walker (1904-1940) originally, from Indiana, Walker started out as a naturalistic painter and turned his attention to abstraction after he moved to New Mexico. He passed away at the age of thirty-five.

Ed Garman (1914-2004) - Joined the TPG when Lawren Harris went back to Canada. With the start of World War II, however, he left NM to serve in the Navy in 1942. The war had a profound influence on his abstractions.

Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) and Alfred Morang (1901-1958) provided intellectual theory and critiques to the group.

Influence of Theosophy

Nicholas Roerich had a very strong influence on Raymond Jonson and Emil Bisttram. In 1921, Jonson met Nicholas Roerich at the Art Institute of Chicago during a Roerich exhibition. Bisttram’s interest in Dynamic Symmetry led him to the teachings of Roerich, P. D. Ouspensky, and H. P. Blavatsky. Bisttram taught at Roerich’s Master Institute of United Arts in New York before moving to Taos and starting his own school in 1932. Both participated in Cor Ardens (flaming heart), a group founded by Roerich dedicated to “universal expression.” Other members of the group, such as Agnes Pelton, were profoundly impacted by Roerich’s Agni Yoga.

Although each member had a slightly different perspective, they all wanted to reach beyond the material world to develop art that was engaging, meditative, and soulful.. This lined up with the teachings of Theosophy and the ancient wisdom. In addition, theosophical writings such as Thought Forms and Wassily Kandinsky’s book Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912), which makes numerous references to Theosophy, had a strong influence on members.

This spiritual insight inspired TPG members to use universal symbols and abstract forms to illuminate the transcendent spirit present in all beings, nature, and the cosmos. Their work served a higher purpose with technical mastery to evoke a feeling of transcendence in those who viewed their art.

Although all TPG members were versed in Theosophy, only Lawren Harris was a member of the Theosophical Society (in Canada).

Exhibitions

The TPG was most active between 1938 and 1942. Raymond Jonson wanted to get national exposure for members of the TPG. In 1939, the TPG exhibited at the World’s Fair in New York. In 1940, six were featured in an exhibit at Hilda Rebay’s Museum of Non-Objective Painting in New York (which later became the Guggenheim Museum). However, with the onset of World War II, the group scattered and eventually dissolved.

Recent exhibitions include:

Transcendent Transcendentalists, Phoenix Art Museum, March 30 - December 15, 2019, https://phxart.org/exhibition/transcendent-transcendentalists/

Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group, 1938-1945, Albuquerque Museum, June 26, 2021 - September 26, 2021, Philbrook Museum of Art, October 17, 2021-February 20, 2022 (https://philbrook.org/exhibitions/the-transcendental-painting-group/), Artis-Naples, The Baker Museum, March 26, 2022 - July 24, 2022 (https://artisnaples.org/baker-museum/exhibitions/2021-22/another-world), Crocker Art Museum, August 28, 2022- November 20, 2022, LA County Museum of Art, December 18, 2022 - June 19, 2023 (https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/another-world), Michael Duncan, Curator, Organized by the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA.

Pelton and Jonson, The Transcendent 1930's, The University of New Mexico Art Museum, Mary Statzer, Curator, June 2023 - March 2025

• 
  Raymond Jonson, 1941
• 
  Stuart Walker, Composition no. 61, 1939
• 
  Ed Garman, no. 260, 1942
• 
  Agnes Pelton, White Fire, 1930
• 
  Horace Towner Pierce, Frame 25, Fourth Movement (Death) from the Spiral Symphony, 1938
• 
  William Lumpkins, Untitled (Cave shape), 1939
• 
  Emil Bisttram, Oversoul, 1945
• 
  Florence Miller Pierce, Untitled (Descent), 1942

Additional Resources

Videos

Michael Duncan: The Transcendental Painting Group, Crocker Art Museum YouTube channel, November 14, 2022 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fQdFEnU29eo

Curator Talk: Another World, Crocker Art Museum YouTube channel, February 17, 2023, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NjRRFCwpOUw&t=79s&pp=2AFPkAIB0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD

Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group, 1938-1945, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, EMS Eric Minh Swenson Art Films, March 9, 2023, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-uZXI1Khv2A

Articles

Desert Mystics: The Transcendental Painting Group, David M. Roth, September 17, 2022, Square Cylinder https://www.squarecylinder.com/2022/09/desert-mystics-the-transcendental-painting-group/

“The Artists Who Wanted to Rise Above It All”, Jonathan Griffin, November 20, 2021, style="padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; text-align: center;"https://apollo-magazine.com/transcendental-painting-group-new-mexico/

Excerpt from Martin Diamond, “Who Were They? My Personal Contact with Thirty-Five American Modernists Your Art History Course Never Mentioned,” typescript, 1995, pp. 42-48, available at https://www.emil-bisttram.com/the-transcendental-painting-group-1938-1941/, pulled on 10/26/25.

Websites

https://www.emil-bisttram.com/the-transcendental-painting-group-1938-1941/

https://theosophyart.org/2020/03/24/raymond-co-founded-the-transcendental-painting-group-tpg-and-shared-an-interest-in-the-principles-of-theosophy/

https://artmuseum.unm.edu/raymond-jonson-web-portal/tpg/ (Includes timeline, background information on the TPG, and online gallery of works by TPG members.)

https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/fine-art/modern-post-war-art/2020/06/an-introduction-to-the-transcendental-painting-group/

https://arthistorynewsreport.blogspot.com/2021/06/another-world-transcendental-painting.html

Smithsonian American Art Museum Biographies of Various Artists: https://americanart.si.edu/artist/raymond-jonson-2509 https://americanart.si.edu/artist/emil-bisttram-431 https://americanart.si.edu/artist/stuart-walker-5210 https://americanart.si.edu/artist/ed-garman-1740