This LACMA 1986-87 Exhibition and the massive and profusely illustrated volume that accompanied it, has transformed the study of abstract art.
From the 1890s through the present day, various forms of spirituality have influenced artists and inspired many important transitions from representational art to abstraction. Mystical and speculative philosophies with origins in both eastern and western cultures, as well as other utopian ideas, have been at the heart of the groundbreaking work of Paul Gauguin, Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Joseph Beuys.
Published in conjunction with the exhibition organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the collection of essays by over a dozen distinguished art historians revealed the many aspects of this profound undercurrent of abstract art. This exhibition arranged by Maurice Tuchman (Editor), Nancy Grubb (Editor), Edward Weisberger (Editor), Judi Freeman and Laurie Haycock literally wrote the book on abstract art.