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 OKeeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Joseph Beuys.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this collection of essays by over a dozen distinguished art historians reveals the many aspects of this profound undercurrent of abstract art.

Maurice Tuchman is senior curator of 20th-century art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.