Artist Hilla Rebay, a key figure in the development of the Guggenheim Museum, believed that an artist served as an "interpreter for an otherworldly power." Her fascination with various schools of mystical thought, such as Buddhism, astrology, and Theosophy, not only influenced her own artistic practice, but also her advocacy for nonobjective art, which became the catalyst for the creation of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, the precursor to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Despite engaging in the study of the subject from a young age, Rebay wouldn't find the connection between spirituality and art until she was living in Paris in her twenties. Meeting Dadaist artist Jean Arp in 1915 brought Rebay into the social circles of such influential and experimental contemporaries as Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, and Franz Marc, and led to Rebay's introduction to nonobjective art. Arp also gifted Rebay a copy of Vasily Kandinsky's book On the Spiritual in Art, encouraging her continued exploration of esoteric theories.