The Spiritual in art
Subtitle: abstract painting 1890-1985
By: Los Angeles County Museum of Art ; organized by Maurice Tuchman with the assistance of Judi Freeman, in collaboration with Carel Blotkamp ... [et al.].
Contributors: Tuchman, Maurice.; Freeman, Judi.; Blotkamp, Carel.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art.; Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, Ill.); Haags Gemeentemuseum.
Publisher: Abbeville Press; Abbeville Pr; Angeles County Museum of Art
Published: 1986-12-01
Place of publication: New York
Number of pages: 435
Subjects: Painting, Abstract  -- Exhibitions; Painting, Modern  -- 19th century  -- Exhibitions; Painting, Modern  -- 20th century  -- Exhibitions
Description: Traces the use of geometric signs by the Nabis and other French artists and relates this to the development of abstraction. The author describes some of the sources of ideas about the symbolism of geometric signs, in particular the writings of Helena P. Blavatsky, and traces the impact of these on the Nabis, possibly through the stimulus of Gauguin whose paintings from his Brittany period encouraged a mystical conception of art in which sacred geometry figured as one component. He goes on to discuss in detail the paintings of Paul Serusier, Paul Ranson, Maurice Denis, Charles Filiger, Jean Delville, Frantisek Kupka and Mondrian.
Notes: Exhibition schedule: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (opening Nov. 1986); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and Haags Gemeentemuseum, the Hague.

Includes bibliographies and index.