This volume contains essays that trace the critical issues surrounding abstract painting's contribution to modern art. These essays on abstract painting are by eleven of its most incisive critics and trace the development of such critical issues as hard-edge painting, deductive and serial structure, monochrome abstraction, the psychological analogy, regionalism, and the "death of painting" in Postmodernism. The introduction and commentary situates the essays historically and examines their philosophical sources and influences, from formalism and phenomenology to structuralism and poststructuralism. What emerges is an optimistic picture of abstract painting -- and according to the author, the definitive contribution of modern art.