Noticing an upsurge in abstract, expressionist painting two decades into a new millennium inspires an examination of the effect of certain sociocultural events on the subject matter and style of expression chosen by painters. There may be a correlation between political, cultural, or psychological unrest and the appearance of abstraction in painting. Periods of trauma seem to spur an interest in things unseen and an increased reference to accessing the spiritual realm as remedy for existential crisis. By contrasting the substance and circumstances that define Wassily Kandinsky’s use of abstraction with similarly motivated examples of contemporary abstraction – a comparison of artists living and working a century apart – a connection between trauma, spirituality, and abstraction is made visible.