Jay DeFeo was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area Beat community of avant-garde artists, poets, writers, and musicians working in San Francisco in the 1950s. Raised in the Bay Area, DeFeo studied briefly at the San Jose State College (later San José State University) in 1946 before pursuing a BA and an MA in studio art at the University of California, Berkeley. After traveling throughout Europe and North Africa, DeFeo returned to Northern California in 1953, where she began producing typically large-scale, Abstract Expressionist–inspired oil paintings, often incorporating mixed media such as plaster.

"Mountain No. 2" exemplifies the powerful, enigmatic works inspired by various sources including nature, religion, and mythology that DeFeo produced during this period. The composition’s richly textured surfaces and undulating, expressive lines convey a visceral and tactile sense of a hilly terrain.