Pousette-Dart was a pioneering Abstract Expressionist and a visionary of the New York School which was active in the 1940s and 50s. While he was instrumental in the development of Abstract Expressionism and had significant contact with all members of this group, Pousette-Dart nevertheless chose to maintain a largely separate identity from his Abstract Expressionist colleagues. He remained fiercely individualistic throughout his career.

Culling the collective unconscious and using mythic symbols as conveyors of meaning to represent private truths, Pousette-Dart saw each painting as a journey into creative meditation. He created highly expressive imagery that takes viewers on an uncharted journey deep into the layers of the unconscious. In his search for deeper meaning Pousette-Dart painted with a religious zeal.

Paramount to Pousette-Dart’s creative process was the fusion of intellect and intuition. The artist probed reality to see what lay behind the appearance of objects. Throughout his career he delved deep into metaphysical and transcendental realms and sought to give tangible form to his creative energy. He focused on the primacy of figure/ground relationships and executed his works with impassioned paint.

By 1986 Pousette-Dart had firmly established his place in the American avant-garde. In that year his work was the subject of a major retrospective at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, and he participated in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985.”