For a long time few people knew about spiritualism's impact on the birthof abstract art. But
when the Swedish art historian Sixten Ringbom's book The Sounding Cosmos was published in 1970
the writing of history changed forever. Through his research on Wassily Kandinsky one of the
pivotal figures in modern art Ringbom could show among other things how theosophy and
esoteric teachings were absolutely essential to the development of non-figurative painting.
This discovery generated great debate and the book was both celebrated and controversial. To
this day it is an art history classic that continues to be discussed especially since
people's views of both art and religion are continuously changing. In recent years the
attention given to Hilma af Klint has increased interest in the significance of the spiritual
and in turn has focused new light on Kandinsky and others in the first generation of abstract
painters. The Sounding Cosmos is now being published for the first time in a new edition. The
richly illustrated original text has been supplemented with a new foreword by Daniel Birnbaum
and Julia Voss.
