Book excerpt: The first book to fully explore the diverse perspectives that have formed one of the most significant developments in postwar American art-geometric abstract painting. Heavily influenced by the radical geometry of Piet Mondrian, the American Abstract Artists group of the 1930s and 1940s, and the geometric side of Abstract Expressionism, geometric abstraction has had a profound and controversial effect since it first came to American in the mid-1940s. Reproduced here are 81 illustrations, including 55 in full colour, by 25 of the most important artists to work in America. Michael Auping's essay traces the evolution of the movement and places it in relation to a larger twentieth-century tradition. Iluminating statements by the artists accompany reproductions, and a comprehensive bibliography for each artist, including a list of one-person and group exhibitions,, rounds out the volume. INSIDE COVER JACKET.