Richard Pousette-Dart wrote: “Art reveals the significant life, beauty of all forms – it uplifts, transforms it into the exalted realm of reality wherein its pure contemplative poetic being takes place -- wherein art’s transcendental language of form, spirit, harmony means one universal eternal presence.” Among his peers in the Abstract Expressionist movement, he was rather unique in his strong and consistent linking of art with spiritual and mystical concepts. This interest was intense and of a vast latitude; he read religious and philosophical sources as varied as Lao-tzu, the Upanishads, Christian and Hebrew mystics, and Richard Maurice Bucke’s 1901 Cosmic Consciousness.

Pousette-Dart’s art has offered allusions to, and abstracted versions of, spiritual and contemplative symbols from many civilizations, from Native American, to India, to China. Images specific to certain philosophical traditions, such as the yin-yang, may appear in his work. A large number of his works focus on a single circle, sometimes activated by linear details or intense color, or at a different extreme, simply a black circular presence: this latter type may be meditative in effect, drawing the viewer in, rather like an artistic black hole, presenting a reductive yet compelling image. Conversely, Pousette-Dart has created some canvases of enormous width, strewn with star-like bursts; these seem to invoke the heavens as an impetus to meditate on matters on a universal scale.

Richard Pousette-Dart写过一段话：“艺术揭示生命的本质与万象之美，通过提升与转化，使一切进入崇高而真实的境域。在那样的空间中，纯粹的诗意观照得以展开，而艺术所呈现的形式、精神与和谐，共同指向一种永恒的在场。”在抽象表现主义的同代人里，他一直是个异数，执意把艺术和精神性、神秘主义绑在一起。这种兴趣深沉而杂芜，他读老子，读奥义书，读基督教和希伯来的神秘主义者，也读Richard Maurice Bucke 1901年的那本《宇宙意识》。

他的画里，时常向不同文明的灵性符号投去关注，其中包括美洲原住民、印度、中国，并将它们化入抽象的形态。有些来自特定哲学传统的图像，比如阴阳，也会在他的作品中浮现。他的许多画作围绕着一个圆展开，有时被细密的线条或浓郁的色彩激活，有时则走向另一极端，只是一个黑色的圆形，静默地存在。后者往往可以使人沉静，将观者缓缓吸入，像艺术的黑洞，让极简的形态成为难以移目的存在。而另外，Pousette-Dart的大尺幅的作品则是布满星辰般的笔触，仿佛在召唤苍穹，引人以浩瀚为镜，陷入关于宇宙的沉思。